As the world is figuring out how to deal with COVID-19, it is worth taking stock of the broader value that existing vaccines bring to societies suffering from this pandemic. We illustrate this broader value by considering how existing vaccines can help protect people from other respiratory conditions or from COVID-19 co-infections and relieve overburdened healthcare systems.
Case studies explored more and less successful practices when delivering healthcare across four priority areas (screening, disease management and standardised patient pathways, rational use of medicines and healthcare associated infections). Results were used to simulate cost-savings and patient outcomes that could potentially be realised with improvements in efficiency across the European Union of 27 countries and the United Kingdom.
In the focus on US drug prices, ICER has contributed thinking on determining when price aligns with patient benefits. Less debated is whether insurance coverage provides patients with fair access to a drug with a fair, value-based price. But how do we define fair access? This paper from ICER and OHE authors develops a fair access framework, proposing Ethical Goals for Access and Fair Design Criteria for cost sharing and prior authorization protocols.
The inclusion of productivity value in the appraisal of health technologies is a subject of ongoing debate. In this blog, we discuss the potential impact of not considering productivity costs in the evaluation of vaccination programmes in the UK.
Berdud, Drummond and Towse (2020) propose a method for establishing a reasonable price for an orphan drug. Assuming prices for drugs are set according to incremental value, they propose adjustments to a payer’s ‘normal’ cost-effectiveness threshold (CET) for non-orphan drugs to ensure orphan drug developers achieve no more than the industry-wide rate of return. Adjustments are calculated for differences in R&D costs and population sizes.
