Abstracts by key term: IQWiG
Interview with Dr. Thomas Kaiser, Director of the IQWiG
02.04.2025
For drugs for the treatment of rare diseases (orphan drugs), the requirements of early benefit assessment according to Section 35a SGB V represent a particular challenge. The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) concludes in working paper GA21-01 on orphan drugs, which are in the As part of a re-evaluation of a regular benefit assessment, the additional benefit of the initial benefit assessment for market access was fictitious.
02.04.2023
With the founding of the IQWiG 5 years ago, the legislator pursued the purpose of being able to further postpone rationing in the health care system by using funds more rationally. In order to have a decision-making basis that is independent of industry in particular, IQWiG should evaluate therapies independently from a specialist perspective. Meanwhile, the drug assessment of the Institute itself is in the public criticism, it tendentious. A not medical, but legal assessment of IQWiG's drug assessment practice actually shows discrepancies between the legal requirements and assessment practice, particularly with regard to the definition of the order and the choice of method.
01.08.2009
With the Statutory Health Insurance Competition Strengthening Act (GKV-WSG), the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has been given the additional task of carrying out the economic evaluation of medicines in the form of cost-benefit assessments. In their last article for this magazine (MVF 1/2009: 32-37), the head of IQWiG, Prof. Dr. med. Peter Sawicki and two of his employees briefly presented the methodology newly developed by IQWiG and its motivation. Against the background of many years of research in health economics, the conclusion is disappointing. Neither the internationally applied standards of scientific research were taken into account, nor were the long-standing experiences of other comparable assessment agencies such as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) taken into account in the specific design of the cost-benefit assessment. The hope remains that with the presentation and discussion of the recently commissioned pilot studies, the influence of health economics experts will increase again in order to move the German special approach in cost-benefit assessment more towards the standards accepted in health economics.
01.04.2009
With the most recent health care reform (GKV-WSG), the tasks of the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) were expanded: Previously, it could only evaluate drugs with regard to their medical benefits. In the future, the institute should also put the costs of the medication in relation to the previously determined benefits. According to the law, these cost-benefit assessments are intended, on the one hand, to set maximum amounts for certain medications. On the other hand, they can support the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) in assessing the cost-effectiveness of medical procedures. The proposed concept favors “efficient frontier analysis” as a method. The second element is a “budget impact analysis” to estimate how decisions affect healthcare spending.