In a joint report Lif, the New Therapeutics (NT) Council and representatives of the regions have proposed a new model to facilitate access to combination therapies in Sweden, the efforts have also been supported by the TLV (Swedish Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency).
Treatments that use a combination of several new therapeutic drugs pose a major challenge during assessments, as the costs of using two new medicines combined is considerably higher than that for a monotherapy. It therefore becomes very difficult to deem the combination cost effective and this challenge is particularly impactful in oncology and haematology. Consequentially, the purpose of the work was to facilitate the availability of combination treatments in the near future and focused on increasing the probability of important drug combinations being assessed as cost-effective and recommended for use.
The report put forward several propositions and among others the following were suggested:
- A voluntary commitment for interested parties to work towards enabling combination therapy access. This includes both companies and the regions via the NT Council.
- The TLV should be responsible for overseeing the waiving of confidentiality in regard to health economic data from both manufacturers. This will make sure that certain information is always included in the documentation.
- Assumptions can be utilized pertaining to the future use of a medicine and allow different prices dependant on the expected use. This does not mean that the actual cost of the product will change just that the price will vary, dependant on use, for the health economic evaluation.
The collaboration then suggests that a pilot project could be run and that a candidate should be identified through horizon scanning.
Sources:
- Aho, E., Gustafsson, M. A., Berg, A., Gustafsson, L., Svensson, M., Befrits, G., . . . Tagtstrom, J. (2023, June 7). Report from joint project to strengthen access to challenging combination treatments in the field of cancer. Retrieved from Lif: https://www.lif.se/globalassets/pdf/broschyrer/rapport-fran-partsgemensamt-projekt-inom-canceromradet-2023-06-07.pdf
- Lif. (2023, June 12). Collaboration to solve challenges around combination therapies. Retrieved from Lif: https://www.lif.se/fokusomraden/effektiva-lakemedel-och-en-modern-sjukvard/kombinationsbehandlingar/