Assessing Value, Budget Impact, and Affordability in Asia

A new paper, Assessing Value, Budget Impact, and Affordability in Asia, has been published in the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care. This paper summarises the authors’ views on key thoughts and suggestions emerging from the 2016 HTAi Asia Policy Forum (HAPF) meeting.

A new paper, Assessing Value, Budget Impact, and Affordability in Asia, has been published in the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care. This paper, written by OHE’s Grace Hampson and Adrian Towse, along with Chair of the HTAi Asia Policy Forum Chris Henshall, summarises the authors’ views on key thoughts and suggestions emerging from the 2016 HTAi Asia Policy Forum (HAPF) meeting. It also includes the results of a pre-meeting survey that was used to gather data on how value is assessed and budget impact calculations are used within current processes in the Asia region, as well as current approaches to managing affordability.

The topic of the 2016 HAPF meeting was:  Assessing Value, Budget Impact and Affordability to Inform Decisions on Access and Reimbursement: Principles and Practice, with Special Reference to High Cost Technologies. A background paper was circulated in advance of the meeting.

The meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur, November 2016, and was attended by participants from: Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and payer systems in Asian countries; pharmaceutical and medical device companies with interest and expertise in Asia; invited experts; and the organisers.

The paper reports that:

• All systems consider health benefit to be the key component of value, and that there is little consensus around “wider” elements of value that should be included;
• All systems use budget impact in decision making, despite meeting attendees noting the challenges in producing accurate estimates;
• The most common strategies used to address affordability concerns to date have been: restricting coverage, for example, to patients who are likely to get the highest value; discounts; and revenue caps. It was noted that these “solutions” may have unintended consequences of creating inequitable access to therapies and failing to provide adequate rewards for innovation.

The authors suggest that decision makers, HTA agencies, and industry need to continue to work together to find mutually agreeable solutions to ensure that patients continue to get equitable access to effective therapies at costs that can be afforded throughout the Asia region.

Access the paper here.

More information about the HAPF can be found here. Background papers from previous meetings can be downloaded free of charge here.

For more information please contact Grace Hampson at OHE.