EU Member States have been struggling to address the challenge of reconciling different, partially conflicting policy objectives related to the reimbursement of
medicines: patient access and equity, cost-containment and sustainable funding, and granting reward for innovation to the pharmaceutical industry. Processes such as the High Level Pharmaceutical Forum (2005 to 2008) and the Platform on Access to Medicines in Europe under the Process on Corporate Responsibility in the field of Pharmaceuticals (2010 to 2013), led by the European Commission and involving
Member States and stakeholders, and the ‘Reflection process - Towards modern, responsive and sustainable health systems’ of the sub-group on ‘Cost-effective use of medicines’, led by the Netherlands, should support the Member States in
implementing policies to address this challenge. The general objective of this study was to explore which policy mix related to the reimbursement (funding) of medicines the consulted stakeholders consider as ideal and, based on their assessments investigated in a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), to develop a proposal for the best practice-based approach for such a policy mix (reconciling the different – often conflictive – policy objectives).