Discussants at the 2021 Fair Pricing Forum raised the important question of whether pricing based on value assessment is the right tool among a suite of policy instruments to bring about more affordable access to medicines and health products, particularly in lower income countries and in line with broad public health objectives. While recognizing the significant growth in using value assessment through HTA to inform pricing, recent publications suggest that there are multiple barriers to using HTA, especially in low- and middle-income countries. These range from “lack of data, lack of technical skills for HTA, the technocratic nature of the work, the lack of explicit decision rules” to the perception that HTA puts a “price on life”. In high income countries, the advent of complex health technologies has also challenged the usefulness of HTA. Experts in this session will debate and provide their views on some of these barriers and describe potential ways to overcome them. The panellists will also discuss how HTA could be used in different contexts to inform the pricing and affordability of health products.

Session Material:

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