Ministry of Health of Uruguay awarded at INAHTA

This year during the INAHTA Congress a new activity called “HTA Impact Stories” was launched. In this activity members met in working groups to share their experiences regarding strategies that have worked well (or not so well) in achieving impact/influence of HTA products.

The Uruguayan group presented a story related to the impact of HTA on litigation over high-cost medicines in Uruguay and won the first prize.

Summary

In many Latin American countries, the decision to cover some high-cost non-curative drugs depends on efficacy, safety and economic evaluation. In those cases where the drug is not covered by the system, patients are using legal remedies against the Ministry of Health (MINSA) to request access to these new treatments. This initiative is based on the characteristics of national constitutions that establish health as a fundamental human right.

It is common for judges to decide in favour of patients, regardless of the outcome of assessments carried out by the Ministry of Health. During 2014, a new strategy was developed by the Ministry of Health of Uruguay to transfer knowledge to judges. Two actions were taken: the continuation of multidisciplinary meetings to discuss the value of STDs in judicial decisions and the participation of an STD developer during trials.

Two meetings were held during 2014 with the participation of judges, lawyers, representatives of the Ministry of Health and ETS developers. During the meetings the ETS development process was explained and a discussion took place on strategies for reconciling human rights and the real value of the requested technologies.

At the same time, a medical HTA developer was involved in the litigation process to provide detailed information on the profile of the drug or device under litigation, mainly in terms of efficacy and safety. As a result, during 2014 the number of litigations settled in favour of the Ministry of Health increased compared to previous years.