Edition 4/2018 : GCC-DR Price Harmonization and the Effects of ERP

Through the Gulf Central Committ ee for Drug Registration (GCC-DR), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, and other Arabian Peninsula nations have sought to rein in the rising costs of drugs through price harmonization. The inter-peninsular reference pricing effect has incited price cuts for the GCC-DR countries, most noticeably since 2014, when the harmonization effort went into full effect.  While the GCC-DR countries rely on one another and, most often, Saudi Arabia, to attain the best pricing for a drug, these countries simultaneously use external reference pricing (ERP ) to seek the lowest price possible for a medicine. Recently, South Korea has been officially added to Saudi Arabia’s list of published reference countries. The Asian country is known for having low cost drugs; in turn, Saudi’s trans-continental reliance on South Korea – albeit done inconsistently – has helped to lower the cost of expensive pharmaceuticals, particularly
biologics for cancer.

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