Pharmacoeconomic Guidelines In Belgium: Towards More Transparency And Consistency

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 21 Nov 2008 - 3:00 PST

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Belgian policy makers increasingly pay attention to a drugs' value for money when deciding on the reimbursement of a drug. The current guidelines aim to increase the transparency and consistency of pharmacoeconomic analyses submitted as part of a drug reimbursement request in Belgium.

Before a drug is reimbursed, the pharmaceutical company has to submit a pharmacoeconomic evaluation to the Drug Reimbursement Committee (DRC). With the pharmacoeconomic guidelines the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE) and National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (NIHDI) aim to improve the consistency and transparency of the pharmacoeconomic evaluations submitted to the DRC.

After pilot testing of a set of preliminary guidelines in 2006 and extensive feedback from the pharmaceutical industry, a final set of 12 guidelines were developed jointly by KCE and NIHDI. They relate to the methods for the literature review, the perspective of the evaluation, the target population, the appropriate comparator(s), the analytic techniques, the study design, the calculation of costs, the estimation and valuation of outcomes, the time horizon, modeling, the analysis of uncertainty and the discount rate for costs and outcomes. A recent article, "Belgian Methodological Guidelines for Pharmacoeconomic Evaluations: Towards Standardization of Drug Reimbursement Requests", published in Value in Health, gives an overview of the 12 guidelines. The study was co-authored by Irina Cleemput (KCE), Philippe van Wilder (NIHDI), Michel Huybrechts (KCE) and France Vrijens (KCE).

The Belgian guidelines for pharmacoeconomic evaluations will appear in Value in Health, the official journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research.

Says Dr. Cleemput: "The usefulness of pharmacoeconomic evaluation for health care policy is greatly reduced by inconsistencies in methods used for the evaluation and by the absence of transparent reporting of the evaluations. The current methodological and reporting guidelines for pharmacoeconomic evaluation meet the currently increasing requirement of more transparency in health care decision making processes. Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based. The journal is published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 4,000 clinicians, decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.

ISPOR is a nonprofit, international organization that strives to translate pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research into practice to ensure that society allocates scarce health care resources wisely, fairly, and efficiently.

ISPOR