Pharmaceutical pricing for long-term sustainable healthcare - a research project in collaboration with the Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency

Media reports that Swedish patients struggle to access new, effective drugs. Some reports are accurate, while others are not. Public budgets are tight, creating a growing gap between what is medically possible and what can be afforded. The Swedish government agency TLV (Tandvårds- och läkemedelsförmånsverket) decides which prescription drugs should be publicly funded, which often determines if patients can access these drugs. There is an ongoing debate about the principles that should guide these decisions. Should it matter if a new drug helps patients return to work, potentially disadvantaging retirees? What if a drug for a severe childhood disease also reduces the caregiving burden on parents—should this benefit be considered? Should incentives for research and development be considered? Society encourages the development of new drugs through patents. But should TLV focus on these incentives? This project will explore these questions, helping TLV make more structured decisions. Many proposals for change exist, but they are rarely considered together.

The aim of the project is to develop an operationalizable policy framework for drug pricing. We will construct a simulation model to investigate which pricing models can balance the interests of all stakeholders. The pricing models will be empirically tested on real TLV cases. The project is a collaboration between TLV and Linköping University and provides a unique opportunity for academic research on health policy challenges.