Jens Grueger

Jens Grueger, PhD is a Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group in Zurich, Switzerland where he is the senior expert for pricing and market access in the life sciences. Previously, Dr Grueger was Head of Global Access at F. Hoffmann-La Roche, based in Basel, Switzerland. With his team, they drove holistic access strategies to ensure that Roche and healthcare systems deliver rapid, broad, and sustainable patient access to the company’s innovative offerings. Jens was trained in mathematics and medicine, receiving a master’s degree in medical statistics (1984) and a PhD in theoretical statistics (1986) from the Technical University of Dortmund in Germany. He started his professional career as a health systems researcher, consulting with governments and payers (1986-1994). He led country, regional, and global health economics and outcomes research, pricing, and access organizations for SmithKline Beecham (1994-1999), Novartis (1999-2009), Pfizer (2009-2011) and Roche (2011-2019). He built on the principles of health economics when driving value-based pricing in order to accelerate and broaden access for patients to innovative medicines. He has been promoting risk sharing, performance-based pricing, indication-based pricing, and international differential pricing. He has been leading innovative projects to engage with health technology assessment, payers, and patients around scientific advice, joint clinical scientific assessment, and innovative approaches to evidence generation including real-world data.

Dr Grueger has been an active ISPOR member since 1999, serving on the ISPOR Board of Directors from 2004-2006. He was a member of the ISPOR task force on real-world data (2005-2007), and performance-based risk-sharing arrangements (2011-2013). He participated in scientific committees, workshop committees, and abstract review committees for ISPOR conferences. He has been invited twice to present in plenary sessions at ISPOR Europe conferences(2011 and 2016), chair work groups, and contribute to numerous issues panels. He has been a member of the ISPOR Nominations Committee for the last 2 years, and since 2018 has participated in the ISPOR Strategic Plan Work Group. He has been a scientific reviewer for Value in Health for many years.

ISPOR Vision Statement by Jens Grueger, PhD

If elected president, I will continue to drive the ISPOR mission to promote health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) excellence to improve decision making for health globally. I will specifically focus on 3 areas that are changing rapidly and require new collaborative approaches to HEOR and decision making:

1. An increased people-centric focus on health and well-being, new more complex healthcare technologies, and the availability of vast sources of digital data and advanced analytics. Our understanding of biology, interventions, and digital technologies is advancing at an ever-increasing pace. We are able to diagnose, intercept, and monitor diseases earlier and in real-time. We have new technologies like gene and cell therapies, combined with molecular diagnostics, imaging, and clinical decision tools. We can use big data, sensors, digital biomarkers, and machine learning. ISPOR as the Society that promotes excellence in HEOR and decision making needs to be at the forefront to further develop our procedures and methods and engage with experts from other disciplines to fully understand the implications for healthcare and decision making.
2. The shift to non-communicable diseases and universal health coverage in emerging markets. Having worked in global roles for many years, I understand the importance of addressing members from all geographies, including those from emerging markets. These countries face the biggest challenges in healthcare and are least equipped with the required decision tools and experts. ISPOR’s educational programs should specifically address these issues. We need to support the relevant ISPOR regional chapters and consortia. Additionally, we need to connect members in these countries so that they are able to share their research and consult each other on the adaptation and application of HEOR.
3. Leadership development in ISPOR: ISPOR has a strong focus on its student chapters, and it brings together many of the thought leaders in HEOR. As a former member of the Nomination Committee I have observed that more can be done for emerging leaders in our organization. I would be passionate about setting up programs for our next generation of leaders for special interest groups, task forces, and committees.

ISPOR through its conferences, task forces, and scientific interest groups provides a unique platform where researchers and practitioners of HEOR from academia, industry, consulting, health technology assessment, payers, and government can come together, share their approaches, and discuss innovative solutions. I would be excited and honored to serve as ISPOR president in these exciting and challenging times.