Is your drug cost-effective ? Reflection on ISPOR 2017

ISPOR 2017 Boston

This year ISPOR was held in beautiful Boston.

I am new to the states and have yet to discover the wonders of each state and what they can offer and Boston did not disappoint as a venue for ISPOR, I am sure most will agree.

For those who don’t know, ISPOR is the leading global professional society in pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research. Given the recent presidential changes here in the US and coming from the UK where Brexit is more so on the way; I was intrigued to see what was going to be on the schedule.

I have been working within Pricing, Reimbursement, HEOR and Market Access for the last 4 years and I have an outsider’s perspective on the market and the changes in the marketplace. The one topic that stretched across various sessions was the Value assessment debate.

To put everything simply, the debate still lies around the pricing of a drug in the market. We all know a certain Martin Shkreli who caused controversy not so long ago with him hiking up the price of one of his drugs by 5000%, well this conference is created to put a stop to this and regulate it better.

Pharmaceuticals should be affordable for all, but where everything is to be paid for like in the USA, the difficulty still stands with putting down a price. Even coming from the UK, I know pharmaceutical prices are hard to be set even with the regulations set by NICE.

We are making progress, we are getting there, but these things take time and conferences like ISPOR make the opportunities easier to achieve with so many people gathered to help make the healthcare system better and more affordable to all.

As a recruiter, I think being at these conferences not only gives you the obvious face time with clients/candidates but also gives you the in’s and the outs on the market and what is next in store for the industry. Sharing knowledge is a great part of my job, it’s not something we do enough but it’s how we learn about our industry and how we create and find opportunities for you.

I am very thankful to have attended ISPOR and highly recommend it for future reference!

If you went to ISPOR in Boston, what are your thoughts? 

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