Irish cost-effectiveness guidelines published
pharmafile | November 15, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Dr Mairin Ryan, Economic Evaluation of Health Technologies, HIQA, Health Information and Quality Authority, IPHA, Ireland, Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, NICE, hta
The Irish government has published new health technology assessment guidelines to help decision-makers estimate the cost-effectiveness of medical treatments.
The ‘Economic Evaluation of Health Technologies’ guidelines represent the first section of new HTA guidelines for the country and have been published to help define the role of cost-effectiveness body Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA).
The guidelines are limited to methodological guidance on the conduct of economic assessments and are intended to replace the Irish Healthcare Technology Assessment guidelines published in 2000.
HIQA, established in May 2007 as part of the government’s health reform programme, evaluates the clinical and cost-effectiveness of health technologies and advises the Minister for Health and Children and the Health Service Executive.
The primary audience for HTAs conducted by HIQA will be decision makers within Ireland’s publicly-funded healthcare system.
Speaking at the publication of the new guidelines, HIQA’s director of health technology assessment Dr Mairin Ryan said: “Economic evaluations based on these guidelines will provide ‘value for money’ information to those making decisions about the allocation of health resources and will supply the evidence to support why decisions are made.
“[HIQA’s] economic guidelines show how to estimate the cost-effectiveness of treatments, including relative cost-effectiveness of alternatives where appropriate. In particular, they can be used to identify therapies that are worth providing and those that are not.
Dr Ryan said that the need for value for money in the provision of healthcare services is now “more pressing than ever before”, and how decisions are made to ensure the best use of the resources available is of “paramount importance”.
He added: “These guidelines can be used to see whether or not treatments represent good value for money and are cost-effective. They will enable decision makers to establish the impact of new or existing treatments on budgets and on the broader health and social care systems.
HIQA is similar to the UK’s drugs watchdog NICE – but as Pharmafocus revealed last month, NICE is set to be replaced by a new value-based pricing system in 2014.
Pharma industry reaction
The Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA), which represents research-based pharma firms working within the Irish market, cautiously accepted the new guidelines.
Speaking after the publication of the guidelines, IPHA director of commercial affairs Brian Murphy said: “In developing a system for the conduct of economic evaluation of health technologies it is important to bear in mind that Ireland is a small pharmaceutical market on the edge of Europe.
“Overly complex, lengthy or expensive assessment procedures could result in delays or decisions not to launch new treatments on the Irish market thus depriving Irish patients of access to such advances.”
Murphy said that to date, assessments in Ireland have been conducted in a “pragmatic, timely, transparent and flexible manner” but stressed that it was important that these features continue to “characterise the conduct of future assessments”.
Ben Adams
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