title: Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy in Greece: Toward a Different Path.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Affordable, accessible, and innovation-promoting pharmaceutical care is essential to the operation of a sustainable health system. External reference pricing (ERP), a common pharmaceutical policy in Europe, suffers today from indigenous weaknesses that may cause market distortions and barriers to care, burdening mostly the weak economies, and hence, raising ethical and political worrying.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  A non-randomized experiment was conducted, in order to examine the influence of flexible and adaptable to health systems' affordability ERP structures. Outcomes were assessed by measuring deviations from Greek prices' level ex ante, as well as effects on pharmaceutical markets affiliated to the European ERP system.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pharmaceutical pricing models that fit prices to income and affordability are better in all aspects, as they produce fairer results, while resulting in low external costs for the European ERP network as a whole. Small sets of reference countries are preferred to large baskets, as they produce similar results, while presenting better qualities by increasing the flexibility of the reimbursement system and the transparency of the market.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Education Policy, University of Peloponnese, Corinth, Greece; Centre for Health Services Research, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Kyriakos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Souliotis
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Education Policy, University of Peloponnese , Corinth , Greece.
authors.forename: Manto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Papageorgiou
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Athens University of Economics and Business , Athens , Greece.
authors.forename: Anastasia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Politi
authors.affiliation: Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research , Athens , Greece.
authors.forename: Athanasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Athanasiadis
keywords: GDP; Greece; affordability; external reference pricing; insurance price; reimbursement