Early Value Assessment
Early value assessment supports health technology innovators along the entire commercialization journey, from early (TRL 1) to late stage development (TRL 9). Early value assessment is completed by those with expertise in health technology assessment and health economic modelling.
Early value assessment supports by characterizing and making the case for technology investment, trial, and adoption.
Technology Investment Case
This case is developed for early stage innovators through early health technology assessment (eHTA) in order to identify the:
Commercial potential of a technology being considered for development.
Most valuable beachhead clinical application.
Most valuable service or care setting to target.
Right type of evidence to generate to demonstrate the value of the technology to those who are intended to invest in it or pay for it.
Technology Trial Case
This case is developed for mid to later stage innovators through eHTA in order to identify the:
Financial and Health burden of the clinical problem the technology is intended to solve.
The priority of the target clinical problem to the health care decision makers, including government, health systems, clinicians and patients.
The evidence required to demonstrate value through implementation trials.
Technology Adoption Case
This case is developed for mid to later stage innovators through early health economic modelling in order to identify and quantify the:
Return on Investment (ROI) for a purchaser of the technology.
Potential for a technology to represent good value for money to the payer.
Value-based price for a technology or service.
Minimum effectiveness required for a technology to achieve a desired value-based price.
Allocation of costs and benefits of a technology amongst different budget holders within a health system.
Product Lines
Avoiding the “5 Ds” With Early Value Assessment
Delay - with a requirement to revisit the development program to gather the required evidence.
Disappointment - receiving a negative response to a request for reimbursement.
Duplication - repeating activities because the required evidence was not collected.
Depreciation - reduction in company or asset value due to uncertainty and increased risk.
Disillusion - loss of faith amongst investors and stakeholders because the value proposition can’t be attractively quantified or validated.
Example eHTA
An eHTA was conducted of a discovery to determine its commercial opportunity as a cancer therapeutic. This included examination of the most appropriate patient population. The eHTA established that the technology had significant commercial potential, but that this varied substantially between high and low-risk patient populations. This assessment considered the relative size of the two patient populations, the shorter duration and hence lower costs to complete the clinical trial program in the higher risk patient population, as well as anticipated greater acceptability and more aggressive adoption curve for the high-risk population. The higher probability of tumor recurrence in the high-risk patient group created greater potential for the therapeutic to demonstrate a clinically and statistically significant absolute risk reduction for recurrence at two years, which had been identified as a valuable clinical trial endpoint through the eHTA.
The eHTA also examined the headroom to improve patient health and reduce payer costs. The analyses showed that given the substantial headroom, even a modest effect size would allow the therapeutic to be priced a level that would deliver commercially meaningful revenues, while still being attractive to payers with reference to generally accepted cost effectiveness thresholds.
Collectively, this information provided key inputs into the clinical development strategy for the candidate therapeutic, and provided substantial insight into the opportunity for investors/commercial partners considering investment in the technology.
