Medicines Affordability and Pricing

Equitable access to essential medicines and other medical technologies depends on affordable pricing and effective financing. Promoting fair prices and cost-effective interventions is central to the achievement of universal health coverage.

Strategies for measuring, monitoring and managing prices are essential for promoting access to medicines. There is not one single approach that suits all systems. But there is a universal need to promote equity in access to effective new products, by ensuring that medical advances are affordable and working with all stakeholders to sustainably respond to public health needs.

WHO works with Member States and partners to promote programs and policies that make medicines affordable and accessible to all people. To this end, WHO has developed guidelines to support the development and implementation of national pricing policies and holds a series of monthly webinars on pharmaceutical pricing policy topics. 

WHO also convenes a biennial Fair Pricing Forum to bring stakeholders together to discuss issues of medicines affordability, innovation, and price transparency strategies and policies that can support progress in improving access to all essential medicines and essential health technologies as part of quality and effective health services. 

To help collect data on medicine pricing, WHO developed an innovative multi-language tool to gather and analyze data on the price and availability of medicines in health facilities and procurement centers. The WHO Essential Medicines and Health Products Price and Availability Monitoring Mobile Application (WHO EMP MedMon) allows users to monitor medicines’ prices and availability.