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  The First Summit: Is the U.S. subsidizing the Global Pharmaceutical Market? A European Perspective
Compared to the United States, other major industrialized nations spend far less for the latest prescription drugs. Data suggests that it is not uncommon for consumers in Western Europe, for example, to spend 50% to 65% of what the American consumer spends for the same medications - often medications that are sold by U.S. companies and even manufactured in the U.S. At the same time, it is clear that governments in those countries have harmed the innovation process.
What can we learn from other leading Western systems about managing both the cost and use of pharmaceuticals? Does the U.S. need to rethink its current laissez-faire policy toward the global pharmaceutical marketplace or not?
How do other Western systems control their prescription drug costs, both their price and their utilization. What are the true effects of these systems? Is the difference solely the result of a centralized control of drug prices? Does their success indicate that regulated pricing is more effective than market-based pricing? Is the U.S. allowing other nations to simply "price at the margin" leaving American consumers to disproportionately support the pharmaceutical companies research costs? Are the other Western nations taking unfair advantage of the American taxpayers funding of the National Institutes of Health research funding? Are these nations more effective in managing toward the appropriate levels of overall cost and pharmacy utilization?
The Summit of December 5th addressed all of these questions from the perspective of the European leaders who have been personally involved in the development and implementation of the European answers to these questions as well as those who have most keenly felt those answers' effects.
Program
for Summit of December 5th, 2003
 8:30 am to 9:00 am: Welcome & Introduction
Prof. Raphael H. Levey, MD, Chairman,
Global Medical Forum Foundation
Mr. Robert Laszewski,
Chairman North America, Global Medical Forum
9:00 am to 10:00 am
Prof. Panos Kanavos, London School of Economics
"A Case Study from the European Market"
Interlocutor: Mr. James Roberts, President, Health Actuaries LLC
10:00 am to 10:15 am: Coffee Break
10:15 am to 11:15 am
Mme. Annie Chicoye, Founder and CEO, ACE
"How Pharmaceutical Pricing was Changed in France: A Lesson"
Interlocutor: Mr. Ed Howard, Alliance for Health Reform
11:15 am to 12:15 pm
Dr. Robert Geursen, fmr. SVP, Corporate Public Policy, Aventis Pharma.
"An Overview of Pharmaceutical Pricing in the European Community & the Effects of Reference Pricing"
Interlocutor: Dr. Paul Ginsburg, Center for Studying Health System Change
12:15 pm to 1:30 pm: Lunch at the Hay Adams Hotel
(next-door)
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm
Dr. Heinz Redwood, Consultant & Advisor to Pharmaceutical Industry
"A Mid-Atlantic Approach to Rational Pharmaceutical Pricing"
Interlocutor: Ms. Jane Sarasohn-Kahn,
THINK-Health & Affiliate - Institute for the Future
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm: American Reaction Panel
Ms. Kathleen Buto, Vice President, Health Policy, Johnson & Johnson
Dr. Sharon Levine, The Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Permanente
Interlocutor: Mr. Lawrence Leisure, Managing Partner - Health Services Industry,
Accenture
3:30 pm to 3:45 pm: Coffee Break
3:45 pm to 4:45 pm: Keynote Reaction
Dr. Mark McClellan, Commissioner, U.S. Food & Drug Administration
Interlocutor: Dr. John McLaughlin, The McLaughlin Group |
