Time for health economic evaluations? Join us for a discussion at the Autumn Symposium on 26 November 2021: Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care

2021 SEP 01 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at NewsRx COVID-19 Daily -- How much market can the healthcare system tolerate? How much can curing a disease, prolonging life or alleviating symptoms cost? How expensive can a new drug be? Where does Germany’s aversion to health economic evaluations come from? And how can the patient perspective be incorporated into health economic evaluations? These questions are not new. But they arise all the more in times when prices that could overwhelm the financial capacity of the German healthcare system in the foreseeable future are being charged for certain treatments. In this context, advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) are under particular scrutiny.

Health economic evaluations can provide information on whether the reimbursement of costs by the health insurance funds is appropriate and reasonable. “To date, however, we in the German healthcare system have shied away from the debate about how expensive a treatment may be in relation to the benefit it achieves,” says IQWiG Director Jurgen Windeler. “Especially in view of the rapidly growing number of extremely high-priced new ATMPs and the tight financial situation of the health insurance funds, not only because of Covid-19, we will not be able to avoid answering this question for much longer. And that is precisely why we want to discuss it at the 2021 Autumn Symposium.”

IQWiG’s Autumn Symposium 2021 is entitled “Commercialization in health care - time for health economic evaluations?” and will take place on Friday, 26 November from 11:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. in Cologne, Germany. Online registration is now possible.

In 2020, IQWiG had to cancel its annual Autumn Symposium due to a ban on events in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This year, the event will most likely be able to take place. The number of participants allowed on site in Cologne is limited, but there is also the option to follow the presentations and discussions via livestream (passive participation only). All information on the programme, venue, hygiene measures and registration for the event, which is free of charge, can be found on the IQWiG website. Please note: the event will be held in German.

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