Healthcare systems in Europe and beyond face challenges in ensuring affordable access to innovative health technologies (including pharmaceuticals). The Horizon Europe-funded ASCERTAIN project aims to develop new models for pricing, assessment (HTA) and financing of these health technologies. The Pharmacoeconomics Department at Gesundheit Österreich GmbH is part of this four-year project led by Erasmus University Rotterdam and leads a work package focusing on the development of new (fair) pricing models and approaches for innovative healthcare technologies.
Objective
ASCERTAIN (Affordability and Sustainability improvements through new pricing, Cost- Effectiveness and ReimbursemenT models to Appraise INnovative health technologies) addresses the need of patients, physicians, payers, regulators, and manufacturers to improve the affordability and accessibility to innovative health technologies (including pharmaceuticals) in Europe. ASCERTAIN aims to enhance current methods of (value-based) pricing, cost-effectiveness modeling, threshold-setting, reimbursement, and payment, to set affordable prices, and to facilitate a cyclic assessment of broader societal benefits including costs and risks.
The Pharmacoeconomics Department at Gesundheit Österreich GmbH co-lead a work package focusing on developing new approaches for pricing innovative technologies that aim to find a balance between improving patient access and stimulating entrepreneurship.
Project update
This work, led by experts at the Pharmacoeconomics Department at GÖG in collaboration with AIM and Erasmus University Rotterdam, focuses on creating a new pricing model that considers various price determinants such as cost and value elements.
Over the past year, the team has conducted literature reviews on fair pricing definitions, pricing policies, and a wide range of potential price determinants (e.g. R&D and production costs, public contributions, added therapeutic value, and environmental impacts, among others), and consulted stakeholders including healthcare payers, healthcare professionals, patient organizations, researchers, industry experts and investors, through expert interviews and written consultations. The progress made in this work package was presented at two recent ASCERTAIN consortium meetings (one in Madrid and one online), where experts from the Pharmacoeconomics Department shared their ongoing work with the consortium and the international advisory board. Over the coming year, the work conducted so far will be developed into a draft model and we will seek stakeholder input through an online survey.
Research output
Presentations and posters at scientific conferences with contributions from members of the Pharmacoeconmics Department at GÖG
- Salcher-Konrad M, Hendrickx A, Zimmermann N: "Fair" or "optimal" pricing of medicines: How do definitions for fair pricing align with economic theory? EuHEA Conference 2024, Vienna, 2 July 2024
- Salcher-Konrad, Maximilian. What is a fair price? Reviewing “fair pricing” definitions from different perspectives. EHA2024 Congress, Madrid, 14 June 2024
- Salcher-Konrad M, Hendrickx A, Schneider P, Zimmermann N. Defining fair prices for new health technologies. 5th PPRI conference 2024: Ensuring access to affordable medicines through innovative policies, Vienna, 25–26 April 2024
- Salcher-Konrad M, Zimmermann N, Schneider P, Hendrickx A: What is a fair price? A review of definitions for fair prices of health technologies. ISPOR Europe 2023, Copenhagen, 14 November 2023
Webinars with contributions from members of the Pharmacoeconmics Department at GÖG
- Greener pharmaceuticals: policies for an environmentally sustainable pharmaceutical system (15 May 2024)
- Basics of medicines pricing in Europe (7 March 2024)
Further information
Contact
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the project team (maximilian.salcher@goeg.at).