CPE has published its Policy Statement “Most Favoured Nation Drug Pricing: Ensuring Patient Access to Innovation in Europe” and is now inviting organisations across Europe to add their endorsement. European health stakeholders including patient organisations, health economists and industry are all called on to lend their voice.
The Statement is the direct outcome of CPE’s policy webinar “The Price of Access: MFN Drug Pricing – What Could It Mean for Patient Access in Europe?”, held on 8 May 2026 as part of the 2026 CPE Policy Webinar Series. Discussions during this webinar made one thing clear: pricing decisions taken outside Europe are already shaping how and when new cancer treatments reach European patients.
Why this matters for patients
Most Favoured Nation (MFN) pricing is the most recent US policy intended to lower medicine prices by linking them to those in other comparable developed countries.
MFN pricing applies in the United States, but its effects may not stop there. If companies respond by adjusting their pricing or launch strategies globally, which medicines are launched in Europe (and how soon) could change with them. Europe is not starting from a level playing field: patients in smaller Member States already wait 18 months or longer after European approval before a new cancer medicine becomes available to them.
The statement rests on four principles: that global pricing developments should not delay access to innovative treatments; that shifting launch strategies must not widen inequalities between Member States, particularly in smaller or lower-GDP countries; that support for innovation must go hand in hand with systems that deliver medicines of real clinical benefit to patients quickly and equitably; and that patient organisations are essential partners in keeping decisions centred on patient needs.
A coordinated path forward
The Call to Action call for coordinated action at EU level on five fronts: coordinated EU-level monitoring of how global pricing developments affect availability and access disparities; the meaningful involvement of patient organisations in
pharmaceutical policy discussions; reimbursement frameworks that recognise real clinical innovation and support faster access; a review of intra-European reference pricing and other cross-country price-linkage mechanisms; and practical cooperation on health technology assessment, procurement, supply security and data sharing, with national pricing and reimbursement decisions remaining with Member States. At CPE, we believe patient access must stay at the centre of these decisions as global markets evolve.
Part of a wider conversation
This statement was developed in the context of CPE’s Policy Webinar Series, launched in response to CPE members’ feedback on the need for patient organisations working in European member states to be better informed about policy developments at EU level directly impacting them. The series works in two directions: bringing EU policy to patients in a form that supports advocacy, and carrying patients’ priorities and lived experience to key health policy stakeholders at EU level. Three webinars have already taken place: on MFN and global pharmaceutical pricing, smoking cessation, and the EU Biotech Act and clinical trials, with a fourth on cancer care pricing and affordability scheduled to take place on 28 September 2026. Further sessions are planned on the European Health Data Space, EU pharmaceutical legislation, and innovative medical devices in oncology.
Watch the MFN webinar and read the full report here.
Missed the other sessions? Recordings from our 2026 policy webinars are available here, and registration for the next webinar on cancer care pricing and affordability is open now.
