By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - European governments need to be better at sharing expertise about the cost-effectiveness of new medicines to counter the budget strains posed by the arrival of a wave of costly drugs, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Only a few countries across Europe have robust systems in place to evaluate whether drugs are worth using at the prices asked by manufacturers, the WHO said. "The ultimate goal is to protect patients’ interests and to ensure that they are not provided with expensive new medicines that offer little or no improvement in health outcomes,” said Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO regional director for Europe. The WHO, which set out the challenges facing Europe in a 180-page paper on Thursday, said the issue was most acute in low- and middle-income countries with less developed health systems.
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