ISPOR Thailand Chapter First Annual Academic Meeting:
Friday 15 September 2006 At the Thai FDA, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand

International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcome Research (ISPOR) Thailand cooperated with the Office of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Medical Department, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand to organize the First Annual Academic Meeting on Pharmacoeconomics and Outcome Research in Thailand on 15 September 2006. The General Secretariat of the FDA, Prof Dr. Pakdee Pothisiri opened the meeting and spoke about the necessity and demand of the use of PE in Thailand at present. About 160 experts, researchers, regulators and medical and pharmacist practitioners participated in the meeting. President of ISPOR, Thailand Chapter, Associate Prof. Dr. Vithaya Kulsomboon addressed the mission and commitment of ISPOR, Thailand Chapter and encouraged the audiences to be a member of ISPOR, Thailand Chapter.

The first session on “Past, Present and Futures of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcome Research in Thailand” was addressed by Dr. Viroj Tancharoensathein, the Director of International Health and Public Policy (IHPP), Thailand. He emphasized the need to establish the Office of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) to support economic evaluation (EE) information for health care decision making in Thailand. Based upon the historical review of EE in Thailand, he informed that this area still lacks of HTA manpower and quality of EE research. Change of health insurance system in Thailand, at present, has driven the demand of EE and PE, and demand of HTA organization to prioritize, conduct and support research and manpower in this area. Following the first session, three pharmacoeconomic (PE) studies were selected to be presented including:

(1) A systemic review of EE literature in Thailand: the topic “Are the data good enough to be used by policy makers?” was presented by Dr. Yot Teerawattananon from IHPP. He said the number of PE studies in Thailand is limited compared to other country and its quality is also the problem. He urged to generate the national methodological guidelines to standardize the PE method for reporting and conducting EE and PE in Thailand. He also recommended setting up a comprehensive and systemic way to prioritize areas for future EE targeting to public health priorities.

(2) The topic “Cost-effectiveness of smoking cessation therapy” was presented by Assistant Prof. Dr. Nathorn Chaiyanuprok, Naresuan University. He mentioned that in Thailand, smoking is one determinant of several chronic illnesses. It appears that patients cannot access to smoking cessation clinic and there is a need for practitioner like pharmacist to assist patients to decrease and, at the end, stop their smoking. An EE study of the establishment of smoking cessation clinic in Pharmacy compared to patient’s self-cessation was conducted. CE modeling for this intervention was set up using decision tree. Related clinical outcome was integrated in Markovian analysis. Based on published literature, outcome on abstinence at one year resulting from pharmacist intervention is 14% compared with control group of 2.7%. Few studies were used to support data to be incorporated in the model. The result will be used for decision maker for feasibility of the reimbursement of smoking cessation service.

(3) The study on “Economic Evaluation of Therapy for patients with Hemophilia” was presented by Associate Prof., Dr. Chaornsin Suksriwong, Mahidol University. The information on efficacy, safety, access, and management of pharmaceutical product in Hemophilia was presented. The cost of Factor VIII and IX is about 9 million baht lifelong for one patient. Several options could be used for decision maker to support the program for providing service in Hemophilia including inpatient (severe case and/or moderate) case and home (severe and /or moderate) case. The annual cost of 3000 patients and 1500 patients were calculated based on the proposed options. The study recommended support use of pharmaceutical product at home for 1500 or 3000 patients in Universal coverage scheme. Strictly use of product should be applied when the product is included in the benefit scheme. Several products are requested to be included in the core health benefit package. Therefore, there is a need to set up criteria for inclusion of the products.

In the afternoon, there was a plenary session on “The Role of PE in Policy Decisions”. Experts from National Health Security Office (NHSO), Health Service Research Institute (HSRI), the FDA and Medical Department shared their views on the problem, obstacles and demand for EE to be used to allocate health care resources in each health insurance scheme. The experiences of the government office dealing with EE and HTA were presented. All of the presenters agreed that it is the time to implement the application of EE for the selection of pharmaceuticals and medical technology. The EE of their uses is also important to indicate the efficiency of adoption of new drug and medical technology. The decision based on EE will also assure the equity of patient to access health care services.

The final session was the discussion on the Roadmaps for Pharmacoeconomic and Outcome Research Development in Thailand. ISPOR (Thailand) Committee Member including Drs. Vithaya, Nathorn and Yot proposed a plan for improving the use of PE in Thailand including (1) standardization of PE guidelines, (2) translation of PE language to general practitioner and public, (3) promote PE training program both general concept and advanced PE methodology, and (4) organize PE academic meeting for knowledge sharing among ISPOR members and others. At the end, there were about 50 new applicants registered to be a new member of ISPOR (Thailand).