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: Cancer Inequalities between and within Member States
15 December, 16-17.15 CET
Objective: The objective of this virtual event is to link EU CANCER PLAN and Beca Report with Country specific recommendations in order to reduce the Inequalities for (lung) cancer patients between and within Member States with focus on Eastern Europe.
Background:
Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan is one of the key pillars of the European Health Union project. For the successful implementation of the Plan, significant multi-level cooperation between institutions, member states, regional and local authorities as well as social partners and civil society organisations is required, in particular to bridge the important disparities in cancer prevention and access to cancer care between and within European countries. These inequalities have a deep impact on cancer incidence rates, survival and mortality across the EU. Strengthening EU cooperation to boost cancer research, innovation and new technologies in the fight against cancer and health inequalities is one of the underlying tools to ensure the highest standards of cancer care and equitable access for all Europeans, no matter where they live, and therefore one of the priorities of the BECA draft report.
The BECA draft report provides a wide range of concrete actions and tools in the fields of health and cancer research where the EU can complement and support national efforts to defeat cancer.
Webinar: Climate and Health – why should policymakers and the public be concerned?
23 November
With the global temperatures on the rise and increasing climate instability, what will be the impact on health? How can society best respond now to future challenges that both address the economic realities of climate change and anticipate any demands that may be placed upon public health systems which are already under severe strain due to demographic shifts and aging populations.
Natural experiments of the impact of enforced rapid reduction in economic activity and reduced pollution are being seen in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics to be considered in the webinar include impacts of planned efforts to limit climate change on financial health and thus funding for healthcare; increasing need for emergency support for floods and associated epidemics; health effects of forced migration; and climate change, pollution and health. Reducing global warming via less pollution would reduce risks of communicable diseases and non- communicable diseases, including cancers. What evidence on health benefits of limiting climate change would lead to a change in policy?
Early Bird: Diagnosed but not treated? Prioritizing timely care in Europe’s cancer plans
13 October, 2021
Timely access to optimal treatment has great promise for significantly improving outcomes for cancer patients. For instance, the early diagnosis and treatment of skin cancer provides a 99% chance of 5-year survival – yet in later stages, the odds drop to just 27%. As well, the length of time it takes for cancer treatments to reach patients is vitally important to European and national cancer policies, including Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.
Current political debates around access cancer medicines often overlook the interplay of factors that cause suboptimal treatment rates. Ineligibility requirements, late diagnostic testing, treatment delays, poorly defined clinical guidelines, and resource constraints worsen a patient’s access to timely and adequate treatments.
How can we ensure that patients are diagnosed promptly and can access treatment in a timely manner? Why does reimbursement not always correlate to access to innovative treatments across Europe? How should we prioritize treatment rates in cancer plans?
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 Historical Impact of Price Controls on the Biopharma Industry
22 November 2021
By Duane Schulthess and Harry P. Bowen
With US congressional proposals now advocating in favor of government price setting for prescription medicines, the impacts of historical price setting in Europe provides a robust data source to test and predict the impact of price controls in the US on the biopharma ecosystem.
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