Antimicrobial Resistance: Is Health Technology Assessment Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem?
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
POLICY PERSPECTIVE
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance is a serious challenge to the success and sustainability of our healthcare systems. There has been
increasing policy attention given to antimicrobial resistance in the last few years, and increased amounts of funding have
been channeled into funding for research and development of antimicrobial agents. Nevertheless, manufacturers doubt
whether there will be a market for new antimicrobial technologies sufficient to enable them to recoup their investment.
Health technology assessment (HTA) has a critical role in creating confidence that if valuable technologies can be developed
they will be reimbursed at a level that captures their true value. We identify 3 deficiencies of current HTA processes for
appraising antimicrobial agents: a methods-centric approach rather than problem-centric approach for dealing with new
challenges, a lack of tools for thinking about changing patterns of infection, and the absence of an approach to epidemio logical risks. We argue that, to play their role more effectively, HTA agencies need to broaden their methodological tool kit,
design and communicate their analysis to a wider set of users, and incorporate long-term policy goals, such as containing
resistance, as part of their evaluation criteria alongside immediate health gains.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
antibiotic agents, antimicrobial resistance, economic evaluation, health technology assessment