Meindert Boysen, PharmD, is the director for the technology appraisal and the highly specialized technologies programs at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in England, UK. Meindert is also responsible for the Patient Access Schemes Liaison Unit, and the NICE side of the Cancer Drugs Fund.
Meindert graduated as a pharmacist in the Netherlands, and has since completed a masters in health policy planning and financing at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
He has worked in hospital pharmacy, in pharmaceutical industry (Eli Lilly & Co), for the King's Fund, and NICE. In his time at NICE, Meindert has been leading on the move to 'single technology appraisals.' on bringing in the program for 'ultra-orphan' drugs, on the development of the plans for value-based assessment, on the arrangements for the new cancer drugs fund, and most recently on the proposals regarding consideration of budget impact, fast-track appraisals and highly specialized technologies. The latter two in close collaboration with the commissioner (payer) of care; NHS England.
Meindert is a skilled communicator, effective negotiator, and extremely dedicated to ensuring that the programs he leads deliver on their key performance targets and budgets.
ISPOR Vision Statement by Meindert Boysen, PharmD
Without doubt, ISPOR delivers a great service to students, academics, and scientists in the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research, and that we can therefore truly claim to be the leading global scientific and educational organization for health economics and outcomes research. Two of our society's strategic pillars focus on this; science and research excellence, and education and training. In that context, I thoroughly support, and commend, the decision by ISPOR to appoint Richard J. Wilke, PhD, as chief science officer, and look very much forward to working with him, if elected to the Board.
Capacity building must be the cornerstone of a shared ambition between universities, companies, regulators, and health technology assessment agencies to further advance our field. Even with all the will and money in the world, there are simply not enough highly skilled, experienced, and dedicated people to help us deliver on the ever increasing demand for pharmacoeconomic and outcomes research based evidence.
Personalized medicine, adaptive pathways, digital health, regenerative medicine, new generation medical devices—all these developments require us to think differently about (individual) value of technologies, and the 'risks' we take by developing, using, and paying for them. We cannot afford to (just) rely on highly developed scientific and technical skills in health economics and outcomes research, and need to broaden our perspective.
The focus of my contribution to the ISPOR Board, after 13 years at the forefront of decision making at NICE, quite naturally lies with one of the other strategic objectives of ISPOR, which is to 'be a valued and reliable resource for translating knowledge into practice for decision makers and stakeholders ...'. Our community represents such a wealth of knowledge, experience, and skills that deserve to be disseminated beyond (just) our membership. Active participation of ISPOR members in (regional) initiatives such as EUnetHTA, and in 'sister' organizations such as INAHTA and HTAi will allow that to happen. I'm excited to play my part in doing so where I can if elected to the ISPOR Board.