insights - IMS Health

INSIGHTS | IMPLEMENTING HTA IN ASIA PACIFIC
FIGURE 1: COST CONTAINMENT IN ASIA PACIFIC HAS FOCUSED ON LOW-COMPLEX MEASURES
DECREASING COMPLEXITY OF TOOL
Cost containment
tools FR DE IT ES UK AUS CH IN JP KR TW ID MY PH SG TH VT
VBP/Risk-sharing
agreements
HTA/cost-effectiveness
assessments
Quality/innovation/
therapeutic value rating
Generics promotion
International price
referencing
Spending caps
Patient contributions
Prescribing controls
Mandatory price cuts
EU APAC ASEAN
Most cost-containment tools used are at the relatively low complexity end of the scale
Only recently implemented/limited application FR: France, DE: Germany, IT: Italy, ES: Spain, UK: United Kingdom, AUS: Australia,
CH: China, IN: India, JP: Japan, KR: South Korea, TW: Taiwan, ID: Indonesia,
MY: Malaysia, PH: Philippines, SG: Singapore, TH: Thailand, VT: Vietnam
NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) in the UK, for guidance on
the design and implementation of their HTA processes. Even with the relevant expertise in
place, the issue of which therapy areas to prioritize remains a critical question.
• Data availability and real-world evidence: The effective working of an HTA process
relies heavily on local data, be they clinical data in the local population (particularly
important in populations where genetic differences may result in different levels of efficacy),
or healthcare resource use and cost data which will be used to evaluate the costeffectiveness
of different treatment options relative to the current standard of care. Hence,
the growing demand for real-world evidence (RWE) to support HTA submissions.
For the emerging Asian markets, the need for RWE in itself brings another set of challenges.
Local databases are scarce; even when they exist they tend not to be readily available. They
are invariably limited in scope, restricted to a particular locality or condition, or provide
only a sub set of relevant information (eg, diagnosis but no test results). Traditionally not
collected for research purposes, data are neither gathered nor coded in a consistent manner,
meaning that databases cannot necessarily be combined to give an accurate bigger picture.
This reality reflects the relatively early stage of HTA programs across the region; however, it
will have to change in the future, with greater investment in databases and generation of
RWE evidence fast becoming a priority.
PAGE 42 IMS HEALTH ECONOMICS & OUTCOMES RESEARCH