HEU Methods in Health Economics Seminar

Title: Should we use a different HTA process for rare disease treatments?

Presenter: Prof. Michael Drummond

Date: Friday 22 September

Time: 11:00am - 12:00pm

Abstract:  Rare disease treatments (including orphan drugs) pose challenges for health technology assessment.  Typically they have high prices and are almost never cost-effective according to standard criteria. Health economists agree that public subsidy of RDTs in a budget-constrained health care system will reduce population health overall, but are divided on whether RDTs should be treated differently in HTA processes. This presentation will discuss the demand-side arguments for different processes, relating to the value of health care, and the supply-side arguments, relating to rate of return in research and development. Based on the findings of a recent European Union project, the supplementary HTA processes for RDTs in different jurisdictions will be discussed and assessed. Finally, the arguments for and against supplementary processes for RDTs will be summarised and several suggestions made for improving the investment in, and provision of, RDTs in the future.

Bio: Michael Drummond is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York in the United Kingdom. His main field of interest is in the economic evaluation of health care treatments and programmes.  He has undertaken evaluations in a wide range of medical fields including care of the elderly, neonatal intensive care, immunization programmes, services for people with AIDS, eye health care and pharmaceuticals.  He is the author of two major textbooks and more than 750 scientific papers.  He has been President of the International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care, and the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research. In October 2010 he was made a member of the National Academy of Medicine in the USA. He has advised several governments on the assessment of health technologies and chaired one of the Guideline Review Panels for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK. He is currently Co-Editor-in-Chief of Value in Health and has been awarded 3 honorary doctorates, from City University (London), Erasmus University (Rotterdam) and the University of Lisbon. He was a member of the Steering Group for the 2020-22 NICE Methods Review.

Zoom link: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/q5ys

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