Briefing

This is OHE’s report to the Charity Commission for England and Wales for the year 2017, OHE’s first since becoming a registered charity in December 2016. It demonstrates some of the ways in which OHE has met its charitable objects: namely, to advance the education of the public in general/health care payers/policy makers on the subject of health economics and health care policy.

This OHE Briefing outlines the NHS ownership debate through the lens of economics. The aim of the Briefing is to improve understanding of how economics can or cannot help to resolve the question of whether the private ownership of health care provision is good or bad. The economics literature that informs this overview includes: the theory of the organisation of production; theories of behaviour and motivation and the role of incentives and payments in influencing decisions.

This briefing provides a detailed summary of a symposium held at the HTAi 2017 meeting in Rome.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change in ways that render the medications used to cure the infections they cause ineffective.

Resistance to antibiotics is growing, posing a major health risk in rich and poor countries. Additional ways of rewarding R&D are required.

Mechanisms designed to encourage companies to undertake R&D on new medicines are generally characterised as either “push” or “pull” programs.

The HTAi Asia Policy Forum meeting 2013 was held in Seoul, 13^th -14^th June 2013. This was the first of several annual meetings of the HTAi Asia Policy Forum. The topic of the meeting was: How can the available resources be used most effectively to deliver high quality HTA that can be used by health system decision makers?

This report represents the background paper for the meeting, as developed by OHE. The report begins by looking at the increasing interest in the use of HTA, how HTA has evolved, where HTA has got to in Asia.

The second HTAi Asia Policy Forum meeting (2014) was held in Manilla, 10^th -11^th June 2014. The topic of the meeting was: Transferability of HTA. This report represents the background paper for the meeting, as developed by OHE.

The 2015 meeting of the HTAi Asia Policy Forum meeting was held in Singapore, 29th -30th October 2015. The topic of the meeting was: How can HTA meet the needs of health system and government decision makers? This report represents the background paper for the meeting, as developed by OHE.

The 2016 meeting of the HTAi Asia Policy Forum meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur, 17th -18th November 2016. The topic of the meeting was: Assessing Value, Budget Impact and Affordability to Inform Discussions on Access and Reimbursement: Principles and Practice, with Special Reference to High Cost Technologies. This report represents the background paper for the meeting, as developed by OHE.

The paper begins with a discussion of how value can be defined, measured and factored into decisions on access and coverage.