What options do payers have for setting prices for high-cost drugs? Examples include volume discounts, performance based contracts and coverage with evidence. However, is there a comprehensive taxonomy one can use for defining all these different pricing and payment options?

The closest we have come is a new paper by Ardito, Ciani & Drummond (2024). The authors create a
comprehensive categorization of the existing types of pricing and payment schemes. The study identifies 70 unique types of pricing and payment schemes, with about two thirds (67%) of these having been implemented in practice in the real world. “About half of the scheme types were proposed for drugs (34/70, 49%), and the vast majority were not designed for a specific therapeutic area (55/70, 79%).”

Perhaps more interesting is that the authors also review existing taxonomies of pricing and payment schemes (see Table 1 of the study). In the slideshow below, I take the articles mentioned by Ardito, Ciani & Drummond and show visually each of these previous taxonomies.

If you’re interested in identifying options for pricing and payment schemes, I encourage you to both read the Ardito, Ciani & Drummond (2024) paper as well as review the slides above.