Access to Innovation: Optimizing Health for Patient Populations

All stakeholders in life sciences are pursuing innovation with the ultimate goal of changing patients’ lives for the better. While discussion often focuses on innovation, this can overlook the fundamental need to demonstrate value that is relevant to patients. Arguably, value is only delivered when an innovation reaches patients and provides benefits in terms of outcomes. Therefore, measures of innovation should also consider efforts to ensure that access requirements are met, and treatments are delivered in a way that assures health outcomes are delivered to those who will benefit most.

Payers, who have been concerned with measuring health outcomes for many years, are now considered to be the dominant stakeholder in most major healthcare markets. Budgets are, of course, finite and COVID-19 is likely to increase the pressure on future healthcare funding. The term “innovation” is considered by payers to be overused, describing anything from cures to “me too” drugs. Instead, value, and more explicitly value for money, is required by payers for access. As a result, value-based assessments are an essential requirement that drug developers must be able to navigate. The UK is seen as a leader in this field.

Some have argued that the UK is lagging in the adoption of innovation but this is changing. This panel explores the aspirations laid out in the life sciences vision to foster a vibrant life sciences industry which includes rewarding innovation. It will explore some of the mechanisms in the UK that can limit or promote access, and how stakeholders can work together to ensure that patient populations gain access to innovation. It will also consider what companies need to do to ensure their products offer value for money and ultimately reach eligible patients who will benefit.

Join us to discuss the impact and implications of recent initiatives designed to create a more favourable environment for sustainable access to innovation in the UK. Questions that panellists will address include:

• What is NHS England doing to improve access to medicines in a way that maximises public health benefits?
• How is NICE adapting its approach to maximise population health and align with the UK life sciences vision?
• How are payer approaches in the UK perceived internationally? What lessons are being transferred abroad?
• How might Innovation Passports facilitate faster and more efficient drug development processes and patient access?
• How does the UK government incentivise industry sponsored research to ensure alignment with public health priorities?
• When should developers consider payer needs and how can these be built into programs to assure patient access at launch?