The United Kingdom's Medical Technology (MedTech) landscape continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, driven by technological advancements and a growing emphasis on healthcare solutions that leverage the power of data and artificial intelligence. In the dynamic world of MedTech, gaining market access is a pivotal step in bringing innovative solutions to patients and healthcare providers.

As 2023 draws to a close, Decisive Consulting reviews the events of the past year and highlights what the pharmaceutical industry can expect from 2024 as we see anticipated changes in healthcare policy across some of the largest European markets come into effect.

In a critical move towards healthcare reform, China's National Healthcare Security Commission (NHSA) has unveiled the 2023 update of its National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL). The successful negotiations (84.6%) have led to an average price reduction of 61.7% for the newly listed drugs, reflecting the Chinese government's commitment to enhancing the accessibility and affordability of innovative treatments for all its citizens.

The full documentation of the new Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG) scheme has been published. Decisive Consulting Ltd takes a closer look at the final details within the UK's new VPAG scheme with its new affordability mechanism for 'newer' and 'older' medicines. The full publication includes commitments to enhance the commercial flexibilities offered by NHS England and NICE, with further consultations due to take place in early 2024.

In the first of a series of articles dedicated to current, exciting developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and their impact on Market Access. In this article, we focus on the emergence of synthetic data, an approach to generating data that has the potential to revolutionise evidence generation practices, especially for orphan drugs.

Health technology assessment (HTA) is the systematic evaluation of properties, effects, and/or impacts of health technologies, aiming to respond to decision-makers’ needs for information relating to the introduction, coverage, use or disinvestment of health technologies. The majority of countries have some level of HTA procedure in place for the assessment of pharmaceuticals and often use horizon scanning procedures to support topic selection, however this may differ significantly from country to country in terms of key decision drivers, robustness of the procedures or level of evidence to be submitted.

The UK government has published its response to the consultation reviewing the new Statutory Scheme. Craig Smith and Rob McCaskill at Decisive Consulting Ltd take a closer look at the key decisions proposed for the UK's new Statutory Scheme.

Late last week, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach unveiled major reforms across the pharmaceutical landscape that include changes in the statutory rebates and implementing confidential discounts.

A new 5-year medicine pricing framework has been agreed upon in the UK: Take a closer look at the UK's new VPAG agreed by the government, NHS England, and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).

Despite the fact that CEAs are currently focused on listed products, if cost-effectiveness takes more of a prominent role in the HTA process at launch this could result in potential new challenges for pricing and market access in Japan.

In July, the Health Ministry in Germany published a draft of a new bill referred to as the Act for Financial Stability of the Public Health Insurance (GKV-FinStG). Despite strong opposition and critique raised by almost all stakeholders, the draft law was agreed upon by the Federal Cabinet on July 27th.

How has the role of Access within the life science sector changed? How has this altered the capabilities needed to succeed?

Individuals who take out private health insurance has increased in Ireland from 21% in 2008 to roughly 40% in 2022. How does this drastic shift to private healthcare reflect the government’s lack of funding towards new, more expensive treatments that have greater clinical efficacy?