Key Drivers In Health Technology Assessment By Analysing The Level Of Improvement In Actual Benefit In Solid Tumor Oncology Drugs

Abstract

A471 the literature was undertaken to identify published resources relating to the unique characteristics of adoptive immunotherapies and the challenges that these technologies may pose for health economic evaluations. Results: The key challenge identified is the high manufacture cost as the therapy is tailored to each patient and, therefore, mass production is not possible. Therefore, to be reimbursed within the UK these therapies would have to produce large QALY gains under the current NICE threshold. These therapies do have the potential to generate significant benefits if they prove to be curative. However, this leads to a second challenge as they are often evaluated in small-scale, single-arm clinical trials. Therefore, to estimate long-term benefits, extrapolation would be required leading to potential uncertainty, which will impact on decisions relating to HTAs. If large QALY gains cannot be established with confidence then it may be necessary to explore alternative payment methods (e.g. lifetime leasing). ConClusions: Adoptive immunotherapies have the potential to generate significant benefits to patients but the high costs of production and uncertainty over long-term outcomes may prove challenging for future HTAs.