Prices of medicines which is pleasant to all
The article discusses the problem of the price of drugs from the positions of all the major players in the pharmaceutical market: the pharmaceutical business (manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies), the regulator, the payer, the consumer (doctor and patient) - they are all faced with the problem of prices of medicines but from different perspectives: for the business - it is the factor of profitability, for the regulator - the control lever and the subject of regulation, for the payer - a component of costs and optimization of the budget or an indicator of readiness to pay, for the medical community - a barrier to patient's access to a drug, as well as the indicator of value of the drug. The key question that arises when considering the topics covered: why drug price are (should be) accurate as it is and no more or less? Unlike most consumer goods, market mechanisms of price setting for pharmaceuticals are not applicable, in particular because of the complexity of determining the subjective value of the drugs. In the end of the article discussed potentially promising areas of the search of a compromise approach to the pricing of drugs, which includes a comprehensive assessment of the drug, the definition of criteria for assessing of objective and subjective value of drugs, the optimal ratio between the price of medicines and their value.