BY DIFFERENTIAL PRICING is meant the adaptation of prices charged by the seller to the purchasing power in different countries. It was widely agreed that differential pricing could and should play an important role in ensuring access to existing essential drugs at affordable prices, especially in poor countries and, in doing so, could help reconcile affordability with incentives for research and development There was considerable agreement that the general objective of differential pricing should be to obtain the best possible prices in poor countries for essential drugs. This was generally seen to be both desirable and feasible.