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HTA and Pricing
Many healthcare systems are now beginning to face the growing challenge of providing patients with continued access to high-quality health services, in spite of rising costs and a declining active workforce. Most have responded by introducing reforms that focus on reining in costs to establish more contained healthcare budgets, which would be less reliant on routine real-terms funding increases. Unsurprisingly, pharmaceuticals, which in most developed countries represent around 16% of healthcare costs, have been identified as part of this strategy. Today different countries implement various measures aimed at appraising the costs and benefits of medical technologies (so called health technology assessment – HTA) as well as controlling their costs. For example, one of most common and direct ways that pharmaceutical costs are contained is through price regulations, which allow health authorities to control the prices that are set for pharmaceutical products. Generally, these regulations are enforced in a heterogeneous way across the developed world, with different approaches reflecting distinct national policy priorities within the historical and cultural context of the healthcare system. Yet, some regulations are proving to be particularly cumbersome and may actually be obstructing patients from accessing effective medicines in the short-term, whilst possibly threatening medical innovation in the long-term. Accordingly, in this section of our website, the Stockholm Network’s research agenda focuses on the range of policy issues and instruments which currently surround the financing of medicines and treatments. The Stockholm Network believes that public payers have a duty to taxpayers to manage their budgets in an effective manner. Yet it also believes that measures such as HTA and other policies pertaining to the pricing and reimbursement of medicines should be implemented cautiously and strategically, not least in order to facilitate as much as possible the choice of new and innovative treatments.
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