In this Seminar Briefing, Ulf Persson recounts Sweden’s experience with its approach to value based pricing (VBP). The model is a flexible approach that gives weight to cost-offsets outside the health sector and emphasises both encouraging innovation and enhancing access through such options as coverage with evidence development. He offers a series of examples to demonstrate how Sweden has addressed issues that any VBP system will face, including access to orphan drugs.

Prof Persson concludes that VBP in Sweden has been successful. It has avoided critics’ fears that the result would be rapid rises in medicines spending and has found mutually acceptable solutions for rewarding innovation and encouraging early access to important new therapies.