11th HTAsiaLink Newsletter: HIGH-COST DRUGS

Change is good. Health Technology Assessment itself is constituted of many change components starting from research, which is looking for evidence to change something, to decision-making, which is changing something from its previous state to a new one. With the half of 2017 gone by, many new changes have occurred. This issue tries to capture some of it through various experiences.

We would like to welcome the new members of HTAsiaLink the Shanghai Health Technology Assessment Research Center, the Health Technology Assessment Program from Mahidol University, and the InaHTAC (Indonesia Health Technology Assessment Committee),
Ministry of Health, Republic of Indonesia. These members were approved by the HTAsiaLink Board during the Annual Conference which was held in Vietnam in April 2017. The theme for this year’s conference was Health Technology Assessment in designing and implementing a benefits package so that it can help in achieving Universal Health Coverage. GEAR (Guide to Economic Analysis and Research), an online resource that guides researchers performing economic analysis research, was launched during the
HTAsiaLink Conference. We also seized the opportunity to conduct an interview with the vice-minister of Vietnam.