H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Tech, 755 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States of America.
H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Tech, 755 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States of America.
Vaccine. 2024 Mar 19;42(8):1892-1898. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.10.040. Epub 2023 Nov 15.
Setting prices for life-saving medical or pharmaceutical products needs to consider multiple factors, e.g., affordability and health outcomes across different populations. When a group of buyers (e.g., countries) combine their purchasing power (e.g., via a group purchasing organization), the average procurement price decreases in the total volume. Decisions about what price to then charge to each member in a group are particularly challenging, considering the disparities in their respective ability and willingness to pay. Tiered pricing can be an effective way to set prices for a group of buyers, but its performance needs to be quantified and evaluated.
We modeled the decision of setting prices of a medical product (for example, a vaccine) for a group of buyers using a mixed integer programming model, considering the buyers' ability and willingness to pay. The objective is to minimize the unit price disparity adjusted by the buyers' willingness to pay, subject to the constraint that the prices decrease in the buyers' ability to pay. We also developed an analogous subsidy allocation model that applies if the group receives philanthropic donations to support procurement. The models were illustrated with two case studies based on the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine procurement by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Pan American Health Organization, and the performances of uniform, tiered, and differentiated pricing schemes were examined.
The adjusted unit price disparity is non-increasing in the number of price tiers allowed. The biggest decrease in the adjusted price disparity occurs when switching to two-tier pricing from uniform pricing. Tiered pricing performs better in the Gavi group compared to the PAHO group, in part because the ability to pay and willingness to pay have a higher degree of rank correlation within the former group of countries.
This work provides a model for price-setting (subsidy allocation) decisions for a group of buyers and provides a quantitative comparison of different pricing schemes. The results of the case studies suggest that the performance of tiered pricing depends on various factors, including the disparities in the ability and willingness to pay across the buyers.
This research has been supported in part by the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems, the William W. George endowment, and the following benefactors at Georgia Tech: Andrea Laliberte, Richard Rick E. and Charlene Zalesky, and Claudia and Paul Raines.
为挽救生命的医疗或药品制定价格需要考虑多个因素，例如不同人群的负担能力和健康结果。当一群购买者（例如国家）联合其购买力（例如，通过一个团体采购组织）时，总采购量的平均采购价格会下降。考虑到每个成员的支付能力和意愿存在差异，确定然后向集团内的每个成员收取的价格特别具有挑战性。分层定价可以成为为一群购买者设定价格的有效方法，但需要对其性能进行量化和评估。
我们使用混合整数规划模型为一群购买者制定了一种医疗产品（例如疫苗）的价格决策模型，同时考虑了购买者的支付能力和支付意愿。该模型的目标是最小化按购买者支付意愿调整后的单位价格差异，同时受价格随购买者支付能力降低的约束。我们还开发了一个类似的补贴分配模型，如果该团体收到慈善捐款以支持采购，则可以使用该模型。我们使用基于卡介苗（BCG）疫苗采购的两个案例研究说明了这些模型，这些案例研究是由疫苗联盟和泛美卫生组织的 Gavi 进行的，并且检查了统一、分层和差异化定价方案的性能。
允许的价格等级数量越多，调整后的单位价格差异就越小。从统一定价切换到两级定价时，调整后的价格差异最大。分层定价在 Gavi 集团中的表现优于泛美卫生组织，部分原因是在前者国家集团中，支付能力和支付意愿之间的等级相关性更高。
这项工作为一群购买者的价格设定（补贴分配）决策提供了一个模型，并对不同定价方案进行了定量比较。案例研究的结果表明，分层定价的性能取决于各种因素，包括购买者之间的支付能力和支付意愿的差异。
本研究得到了健康与人类系统中心、William W. George 捐赠以及佐治亚理工学院的以下捐赠者的部分支持：Andrea Laliberte、Richard Rick E. 和 Charlene Zalesky 以及 Claudia 和 Paul Raines。
