The National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics reviews the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of individual drugs in the Irish healthcare setting in response to requests from the HSE Corporate Pharmaceutical Unit (HSE-CPU). Evaluations of budget impact analyses have been informed by drug utilisation data extracted from the Community Drugs Schemes databases as appropriate. Evaluations of cost-effectiveness models have been enhanced by the inclusion of Irish cost data as available.
Under the terms of the IPHA/HSE agreement governing reimbursement of drugs in Ireland, effective as of September 1st 2006, the Health Services Executive reserves the right to assess new and existing technologies that may be high cost or have a significant budget impact. All medicines will be subjected to a preliminary rapid review. High cost products and those with significant budget impact will be subjected to formal pharmacoeconomic assessment, in accordance with existing Irish Healthcare Technology Assessment (HTA) Guidelines. Similarly, products where there is a query in relation to value for money will also be selected for formal pharmacoeconomic assessment. The rapid review process takes approximately 3 weeks and the formal pharmacoeconomic assessment is completed in less than 3 months.
Further details on the submission process including templates and guidelines are provided in Submission process
