OBJECTIVES: Early access schemes provide an opportunity for innovative treatments for unmet medical needs and orphan indications to reach patients faster in key markets such as France, the UK, and Australia. These pathways are crucial to ensuring innovative medicines reach the market faster compared to medicines following the traditional pricing and reimbursement process, and consequently have improved the launch position of these products in their markets. Typically, pricing under early access schemes is more flexible. This analysis compares drugs that entered these markets under early access and how their respective prices were impacted upon the expiration of their time in the scheme and entrance into the traditional pricing and reimbursement process.

METHODS: All branded medicines that entered an early access scheme within France, the UK, and Australia with an available pricing history within GlobalData’s Price Intelligence (POLI) database up to 31 May 2023, were identified. Medicines that received a first price change after exiting the early access scheme were then examined. If a brand entered an early access scheme more than once for further indications, the first entry, expiration, and respective price change were used.

RESULTS: Price changes for 41 brands across early access schemes in France, the UK, and Australia were extracted. The average price trend indicated that medicines in France saw the most drastic price cuts at 15.9%, while Australia saw price cuts at 7.20%. The UK, however, saw an average price increase of 2.87%. The time until price change ranged from 6.14 months in the UK to 33.5 months in Australia.

CONCLUSIONS: Brands that enter the French and Australian markets under early access schemes are likely to see their prices reduced within three years of the scheme expiring, while brands in the UK are able to maintain favorable pricing conditions post-early access with possible price increases.