AWTTC have produced reports looking at the trend and number of SOAs issued over a five-year period, and exploring the impact on medicine availability in Wales compared with the other nations of the UK. The reports conclude with recommendations on how the current AWMSG health technology assessment (HTA) process may be updated to optimise access to medicines for patients in Wales. This work will now form part of a wider medicines access review.
Two reports have been produced:
- We completed a comprehensive review of AWMSG SOAs issued between January 2015 and September 2020. The review compiled the number of SOAs issued and how many were still in place over the period. The level of detail in the report provided valuable insight into the reasons why companies were not engaging with AWMSG HTA, which led to updates of processes and recommendations for consideration in the following reports.
- In a follow up report, we dug a little deeper into discrepancies between AWMSG, SMC and NHS England commissioning services and four recommendations were made:
- To review the AWMSG exclusion criteria to consider exclusion of medicines where advice is not required within NHS Wales;
- To engage with clinical networks to explore if medicines available in the other UK nations require assessment for use within NHS Wales;
- To review the updated paediatric licence process to review the requirement for automatic appraisal;
- Review the process for evaluation of antimicrobial medicines.
These recommendations are currently under consideration as part of a wider medicines access review which encompasses areas highlighted by the work on SOAs but also other issues with the potential to have a major impact on the medicines agenda in Wales.