Over the past two decades, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health have evolved from niche concerns in global health to central pillars of the sustainable development agenda. Since the 2011 High-level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of NCDs, significant progress has been made, but there’s still a lot more to do.
NCDs Sustainable Financing: What It Takes
Addressing the challenges of NCDs and mental health isn’t a one-person job. It requires teamwork from stakeholders at all levels—national, regional, and international—including Ministries of Health and Finance, development assistance programmes, and more. Initiatives like the International Dialogue on Sustainable Financing for NCDs and Mental Health led by the WHO and the World Bank have been pivotal in exploring ways to integrate NCD and mental health responses into national health and financing plans. This collaboration is part of the ongoing preparation for the Fourth High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on NCDs in 2025.
What Can Be Done? Practical Strategies:
To build a strong response to NCDs and mental health, here are some key strategies:
- Fiscal Measures: Leveraging taxes and subsidies to fund NCD and mental health initiatives.
- Improving Domestic Budgets: Ensuring that NCDs and mental health are prioritised in national budgets and that financial barriers are reduced.
- Investing in People: Building a robust health workforce to manage NCDs and mental health better.
- Attracting investment: Encouraging both public and private sector investments in NCDs and mental health.
- Implementing Smarter Buying Approaches: Reducing the cost of essential medicines for NCDs and mental health by better aligning procurement strategies with healthcare needs.
Strategic Purchasing: Achieving more health for the money
Strategic purchasing is key to making essential medicines for NCDs and mental health more affordable. Beyond simply allocating more funds to health, countries can get much more value for their money by adopting smarter purchasing strategies that align ‘what to buy’ with ‘how and with whom to buy.’
In 2020, WHO released updated guidelines on country pharmaceutical pricing policies. These guidelines on country pharmaceutical pricing policies provide a comprehensive framework for policymakers and decision-makers involved in managing medicines prices—they offer a roadmap for improving access to medicines at all income levels.
WHO’s Top 10 Recommendations
WHO’s guidelines highlight these top strategies:
- External reference pricing: Regular price revisions based on international benchmarks.
- Internal reference pricing: Applying therapeutic and generic reference pricing for similar medicines.
- Value-based pricing: Coupled with other policies, considering budget impact and affordability.
- Mark-up regulation: Controlling price increases across the supply and distribution chain.
- Price transparency: Sharing net transaction prices with relevant stakeholders.
- Tendering and negotiation: Leveraging competitive processes to secure better pricing.
- Promotion of generics: Encouraging the use of quality-assured generic and biosimilar medicines.
- Pooled procurement: Consolidating demand across multiple buyers to reduce costs.
- Cost-plus pricing: Setting prices transparently when agreed frameworks are in place.
- Domestic fiscal measures: Considering tax exemptions/reductions for pharmaceutical products.
How NCDconnect Can Help You Align with These Principles
At NCDconnect, we are committed to ensuring that everyone has access to quality-assured pharmaceutical products, aligning closely with WHO’s principles.
NCDconnect is a digital procurement platform designed to tackle NCDs such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases. Our platform allows governments, NGOs, and healthcare providers to streamline their procurement processes, offering an efficient alternative to the traditional tendering process.
Here’s how NCDconnect makes a difference:
- Comprehensive price analysis: We compare prices using external reference pricing and conduct thorough therapeutic reference and portfolio analysis with experts in the field.
- Supply chain optimisation & mark-up limitation: By minimising intermediaries and limiting mark-ups, we ensure cost-effectiveness.
- Price transparency: Our quotes break down the price per item, freight costs, insurance, and any other applicable costs.
- Direct negotiation with innovators and generic manufacturers: We secure competitive pricing through direct negotiation.
- Quality assurance, including the promotion of generics: All products meet stringent WHO-PQ, SRA standards, or have passed a rigorous dossier review by our dedicated QA team (read this article to learn more about our Quality Assurance).
- Consolidated procurement: As more buyers join, we consolidate and pool demand to maximise savings.
Let’s Make a Difference Together
The ongoing challenges in global health, particularly around NCDs and mental health, call for innovative, strategic approaches to financing and procurement. NCDconnect stands at the forefront, offering a comprehensive platform that simplifies procurement while ensuring that essential medicines are both affordable and high-quality.
Interested in transforming your procurement strategy?