The rise of large national health care systems, mainly in Europe, has created an ongoing tension with the free market ethos of the pharma industry. After years of painstaking and costly research, drug makers want that moment when they can reap the rewards for their hard work bringing an innovative new therapy to the market. But in countries in Europe and beyond where there are national health care systems with stringent cost constraints, it’s not feasible to meet these price demands, at least without some form of rationing to keep down expenditure.

LONDON – A new route to the approval of drugs promises to smooth the path from clinical trials to approval, reimbursement and commissioning in the National Health Service, through closer and earlier collaboration between the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and health technology assessment bodies.

MALAYSIA – Asian countries, like India, have been struggling to find a middle ground to the effective pricing of drugs and medical devices over the past year and several are looking at health technology assessment (HTA) programs as a solution for this issue in the coming year. Boston-headquartered consulting firm Analysis Group Inc. recently looked at how HTA programs in Japan, South Korea and China varied and what could be gleaned from their experiences.