The operational framework of FaAP was initially established by the health ministers of participant countries signing the first Memorandum of Understanding on 3rd of March, 2017. Since the signature, the participating countries organized meetings according to the memorandum, in rotation, depicting the progress in our cooperation. The second Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Warsaw, on the 15th of May, 2019.

Visibility

There is an institutional regional cooperation initiative worth mentioning based on a memorandum of understanding signed by selected CEE countries called V4+ Fair and Affordable Pricing. Its ultimate goal is to develop and harmonize methods of cooperation and negotiations with MAHs concerning pricing and conditions for reimbursement of selected health technologies with a special emphasis on the highest priced drugs including orphan medicinal products. The objective is to build an active institutional network, exchange of expertise and experience in pricing and reimbursement and conduct common health technology assessment aimed at facilitation access to effective and affordable treatment solutions.
Front. Pharmacol., 08 May 2019

Representatives drew attention to existing regional cooperation mechanisms, including the political declaration adopted by Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia in March 2017 on cooperation in the area of fair and affordable pricing
Report of the 67th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe

Marcin Czech (Former Vice Minister, Ministry of Health, Poland) summarized the cooperative initiative of Fair and Affordable Pricing initiative with Visegrad V4 and Baltic countries, which aims to provide access to effective and affordable medicines. He argued, however, that such projects cannot replace country-level decision-making. Iga Lipska (National Health Insurance Fund, Warsaw) highlighted that during a joint procurement the focus should be on the value of products delivered to patients, not only on their prices, and that the process should be pre-defined, well-described and transparent.
Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res. 2019 Jun 5:1-3.

The event, organised by the European Commission’s DG SANTE, brought together 32 experts from 21 Member States, representing four regional HTA cooperation initiatives – BeNeLuxA, Fair and Affordable Pricing, FINOSE and La Valletta - as well as and the EUnetHTA Joint Action III (2016-2020).
Health Technology Assessment - Sharing Experiences from the Regional Cooperations

Materials

Dominik DZIURDA’s presentation in Lisbon, 29-30th of November 2018.

Marcin CZECH’s, Dominik DZIURDA’s, and Iga LIPSKA’s presentation at ISPOR Warsaw 2019, on the 28th of March 2019.