Better Science, Better Health
“Better Science, Better Health” was established by Vital Transformation to facilitate international collaboration in new clinical regulatory pathways, sources of evidence, and harnessing real world data to improve the access of needed new medicines by patients.
“Better Science, Better Health” provides a unique opportunity for international thought leaders to engage directly in these initiatives around the world, while also bringing new relevant voices into the process.
“Better Science, Better Health” has three core areas of focus:
- Harnessing real world evidence for better decision-making and create better patient outcomes
- Implementing new development pathways and evidence generation to improve access to needed new therapies for patients
- Developing best practices, successes, and opportunities for the integration of patient data and analytics to identify new medicines
Latest Events
Webinar: Vaccines, Trusted Information and Fake News
27 July, 4pm UK
Within many countries the COVID—19 pandemic is entering a 3rd wave and vaccine
confidence is a live issue. According to an August 2018 edition of the Economist, “Italy, France and Serbia … have lower child-vaccinations rates than Burundi, Rwanda and Senegal.” On a background of differences in regulatory approaches to COVID-19 vaccine approvals and statements critical of COVID-19 vaccine efficacy by national leaders, Belgium at one point in 2021 had received 200,000 units but had only been able to distribute 4% of their quantity due to a lack of acceptance in the general public. In contrast, the WHO notes preparedness to accept a COVID-19 vaccine of 65% in recent surveys in Less Developed Countries.
How do we ensure that valid information regarding vaccines is circulated and accepted at all levels of society both in developed and in less developed countries? How do we disentangle outright vaccine refusal from vaccine hesitancy?
Webinar: Taking the next step: health literacy and the fight against cancer
14 April, 8.30-9.00 CET
Higher degrees of health literacy support patients at every stage of their journeys: they help to navigate decision-making and elevate patients to partners. If combined with health literate institutions, the coproduction of health can improve patient care and help reduce costs of unnecessary and inappropriate medical intervention.
Policy changes to increase health literacy have been notoriously difficult to implement, due also to a lack of evidence about the correlation between measures to increase health literacy and actual outcomes. Several initiatives have taken on the task to create such evidence. Most recently, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan promises to make cancer literacy a priority for European policy makers, guidelines, and programs of action.
What do we know about the value of health literacy, where do we need to know more? How can we achieve higher degrees of health literacy? What lessons can we draw from the current pandemic? Join two outstanding experts for an Early Bird discussion on health literacy!
Webinar: Cancer care during a pandemic – what have we learned so far?
10 March, 18:00-18:30
It will probably take years before we can understand the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on cancer patients. We know about decreasing diagnosis, interrupted treatment cycles, and other unintended effects of pandemic control measures. We don’t know, however, what exactly these changes mean for cancer patients and their survival rates.
Even though high-quality data is often lacking and there is significant heterogeneity in real world evidence connecting treatment delays with increased mortality, studies increasingly highlight delays in cancer treatment during the past months. More recently, there have also been attempts to standardize estimates of the effects of treatment delays on survival rates, offering important lessons for cancer care systems.
How can we quantify the impact of delays in cancer treatment on mortality? What do we know about the causal links between pandemic control measures and cancer care? How can patients, health care professionals, and policymakers help minimize delays in cancer treatment initiation?
Latest News
H.R. 3’s international reference pricing misses the mark
By Susan Peschin and Duane Schulthess, April 28, 2021
The White House and Congress have declared that reining in Medicare prescription drug costs to help older adults and people with disabilities is a top priority. But one drug pricing strategy on the table would have an outsized negative impact on people with Alzheimer’s disease and decimate research trying to find effective treatments for it.
This strategy, known as international reference pricing, ties the price that Medicare pays for some drugs to those paid by other countries. The idea was first introduced as a model for Medicare Part B drugs by then-HHS Secretary Alex Azar in 2018. The next year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug pricing plan, known as the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3), significantly expanded the scope to allow federal government use of foreign price controls in direct negotiations with pharmaceutical companies for the cost of 250 prescription medicines in Medicare Part B and Part D. It also extended the negotiated price to insurers and the commercial market at large.
Belgium makes a U-turn on AstraZeneca jab in over-55s
Belgium is the latest European country to make a U-turn on the AstraZeneca vaccine, now recommending it for use in people over 55 years of age. The country's Superior Health Council said data from new, large-scale studies in the UK, which showed strong efficacy in older age groups "is reassuring at first sight," and deemed the jab safe and effective. Belgium was one of a handful of countries – including Germany, France and Italy – that limited the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine last month, despite the European Medicines Agency saying it was safe for anyone over the age of 18.
How Europe fell behind on vaccines
The European Union's vaccination effort came under fire just as it was beginning to deliver. Heralded for months as the flagship of European solidarity during the coronavirus pandemic, the European Commission’s strategy of joint vaccine procurement is now being accused by national leaders of being too bureaucratic, too limiting to its members, too slow.
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The Economic Pandemic: Aggressive Testing Is Vital to Controlling the Spread of COVID19 and Saving Europe’s Economy
8th April 2020
By Duane Schulthess, Gergana Koleva, Anja Schiel, Harry P. Bowen, and Luca Pani
For the last month, a debate has raged over which approach to managing the spread of COVID-19 is correct. One aspect of this debate is about the efficacy of widespread testing.
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