We talk to Government, politicians and civil servants about the way our medicines are priced, the impact of particular policies on patient care and on the international competitiveness of our industry, the future of science and technology in the UK, medicines we have in development, the availability of medicines in the developing world, opportunities to develop new approaches to healthcare issues, the regulation of our industry and our compliance with the regulatory standards.
Healthcare is publicly funded in the UK and therefore the Government is our main customer. We continue our dialogue with all those involved in the development and delivery of health, commercial and science policy in the UK. We never seek to exert undue influence at these meetings.
Health Technology Assessment Bodies
Health Technology Assessment Bodies (HTAs) review medical treatments on the basis of detailed clinical and economical evidence. There are three such bodies in the UK: the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) and the All-Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG). We have made a commitment to supply comprehensive information on our medicines to these bodies when they request them, and it is in our interests to do so – without a positive appraisal, the use of any new medicine in the UK is severely curtailed.
We have been criticised for being too agnostic in our dealings with HTAs and for being too quick to challenge their decisions. This is because we do not believe that the value of a medicine is always captured in the strict economic evaluation of its technical capabilities. We accept that there has been tension in our relationship with HTAs in the past and now are committed to working towards a more constructive relationship. We are keen to develop a closer working relationship with these bodies to help them shape assessment processes that will better allow valuable and innovative new medicines to be used appropriately.
We have set up a forum to stimulate discussion among a wide range of people with different areas of expertise and experience. This forum includes HTA representatives, policymakers, academics and representatives from patient organisations and the patients themselves. We hope this will lead to some interesting ideas about the future of HTAs.