Enhancing Health Technology Assessment Establishment in Asia: Practical Issues From the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Industry Perspectives
Abstract
In the May 2020 issue of Value in Health Regional Issues, Gordon Liu and colleagues reviewed the history of the development, current status, and trends in health technology assessment (HTA) in Asia.
Using China, Japan, and South Korea as 3 case studies, the authors illustrated the complexity of HTA dynamics in the region. Academic research on HTA started much earlier than the actual HTA bodies appeared in various countries in Asia owing to the strong desire to provide adequate access to medical care in the region of the largest population in the world. Connections among HTA agencies in Asia have been active, such as through HTAsiaLink.
These are among the key factors cultivating the development of HTA in Asia during the past 2 decades. However, the article by Liu et al pointed out that the overall development of HTA in the region has been relatively sluggish in comparison to countries such as Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and so on. A number of factors mentioned by Liu et al that may have contributed to the slow development of HTA movement in Asia, including (1) insufficient professional staff with good knowledge and practical experience of pharmacoeconomic expertise in these HTA agencies, (2) lack of awareness of HTA (not only of its benefits in assisting better healthcare resource allocation, but also the implementation in the context of clinical settings), (3) insufficient interactions with the industries (both pharmaceutical and medical device), (4) inability to generate local data, (5) varied approaches of submission evaluation, (6) lack of engagement and communication with various stakeholders to improve transparency, (7) unsatisfactory streamlining of various HTA activities, and (8) slow improvement of quality of HTA-related research. These views are consistent with the literature.
Using China, Japan, and South Korea as 3 case studies, the authors illustrated the complexity of HTA dynamics in the region. Academic research on HTA started much earlier than the actual HTA bodies appeared in various countries in Asia owing to the strong desire to provide adequate access to medical care in the region of the largest population in the world. Connections among HTA agencies in Asia have been active, such as through HTAsiaLink.
These are among the key factors cultivating the development of HTA in Asia during the past 2 decades. However, the article by Liu et al pointed out that the overall development of HTA in the region has been relatively sluggish in comparison to countries such as Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and so on. A number of factors mentioned by Liu et al that may have contributed to the slow development of HTA movement in Asia, including (1) insufficient professional staff with good knowledge and practical experience of pharmacoeconomic expertise in these HTA agencies, (2) lack of awareness of HTA (not only of its benefits in assisting better healthcare resource allocation, but also the implementation in the context of clinical settings), (3) insufficient interactions with the industries (both pharmaceutical and medical device), (4) inability to generate local data, (5) varied approaches of submission evaluation, (6) lack of engagement and communication with various stakeholders to improve transparency, (7) unsatisfactory streamlining of various HTA activities, and (8) slow improvement of quality of HTA-related research. These views are consistent with the literature.
Authors
Bo-Xiong Tang Hong Li Peng Dong Jun Su Makoto Kobayashi Bruce Wang Sang-Soo Lee Ruo-Yan Gai Larry Liu