Horizon scanning is an important part of the solution to fixing Australia’s HTA
15 November 2024: A robust horizon scanning process, as recommended by the HTA Review, will help to prepare Australia’s regulatory and reimbursement systems for advances in therapies and medical breakthroughs.
Medicines Australia CEO Liz de Somer said creating an effective horizon scanning process would underpin a flexible and responsive HTA system, provide greater visibility to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) of new treatments coming to the market, and ultimately reduce delays to patient access.
“Inadequate horizon scanning over the last decade has contributed to the situation Australia is in today, where science and innovation has significantly outpaced our system for reimbursement of the latest innovations and weakened the PBS, to the detriment of patients,” Ms de Somer said.
“We know from the HTA Review there are some 1,300 new cell and gene therapies in development right now that will be available in the next few years – only 7 are currently registered in Australia.”
“From the presentations at our Horizon Scanning Forum held earlier in the year, we know that only 19 novel antimicrobials have been registered for use in the EU and/ or the US since 2011 and of those, only three are registered in Australia.”
“We know there are new vaccines in development, new technologies to prevent infectious diseases, and new AI diagnostics for neurological diseases.”
“Digital technology is accelerating the pace of research and development, and we are now in an era of unprecedented innovations within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors.”
“The PBAC is already struggling with increased numbers of submissions and complexity of medicines being assessed. This is only going to increase. This is a symptom of a broken system that needs urgent reform, and the visibility that horizon scanning provides must be part of the solution.”
The HTA Review identified the need for Australia to establish and resource a horizon scanning function that improves stakeholder engagement in considering the implications of new and emerging health technologies and support healthcare forward planning and priority setting by healthcare payers.
“We need to get on with HTA reform so new therapies entering the market today can be assessed in a timely manner and made available to Australians through the PBS quickly.”
View the 2024 Horizon Scanning Forum report
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Media enquiries to Kate McKeown, Senior Manager Communications and Media – kate.mckeown@medicinesaustralia.com.au or 0408 775 288.