All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre, Academic Centre, University Hospital Llandough, Penlan Road, Llandough, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, CF64 2XX, UK.
Bangor University, Ardudwy, Normal Site, Holyhead Road, Bangor, Wales, LL57 2PZ, UK.
Pharmacoeconomics. 2018 May;36(5):613-624. doi: 10.1007/s40273-018-0632-7.
The All Wales Medicines Strategy Group (AWMSG) develops prescribing advice and is responsible for appraising new medicines for use in Wales. In this article, we examine the medicines appraisal process in Wales, its timeliness and its impact on medicines availability in Wales, and compare its processes and recommendations with the two other UK health technology appraisal bodies [the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC)].
We reviewed the medicines appraisals conducted by AWMSG between October 2010 and September 2015. The duration of the process and the recommendations made by AWMSG were compared with those of NICE and SMC. Only publicly available data were considered in this review.
AWMSG conducted 171 single technology appraisals for 137 medicines during the study period (34 were for medicines previously appraised by AWMSG but these were for new indications). Of these, 152 appraisals were supported for use in NHS Wales (33 with restrictions) and 19 were not supported. Recommendations broadly concurred with SMC and NICE for the majority of appraisals. Compared with NICE recommendations, the median time advantage gained in Wales for those medicines that received a positive AWMSG recommendation and which were subsequently superseded by NICE advice was 10.6 months (range 3.5-48.3 months; n = 17).
This review highlights the work carried out by AWMSG over a 5-year period, and provides evidence to support the effectiveness of the appraisal process in terms of patients in Wales gaining earlier access to medicines and efficiency through reduced duplication with NICE.
全威尔士药品策略组（AWMSG）制定处方建议，并负责评估新药品在威尔士的使用情况。本文探讨了威尔士的药品评估流程、其及时性及其对威尔士药品供应的影响，并将其流程和建议与英国其他两个卫生技术评估机构（国家卫生与临床优化研究所（NICE）和苏格兰药品联合会（SMC））进行了比较。
我们回顾了 AWMSG 在 2010 年 10 月至 2015 年 9 月期间进行的药品评估。AWMSG 的评估流程持续时间和建议与 NICE 和 SMC 进行了比较。本综述仅考虑了公开可用的数据。
在研究期间，AWMSG 对 137 种药品进行了 171 项单一技术评估（其中 34 项是对 AWMSG 以前评估过的药品进行的，但这些药品是针对新的适应证）。其中，152 项评估支持在威尔士国民保健服务中使用（33 项有条件支持），19 项不支持。大多数评估的建议与 SMC 和 NICE 大致一致。与 NICE 建议相比，对于那些获得 AWMSG 积极推荐且随后被 NICE 建议取代的药品，威尔士获得的中位时间优势为 10.6 个月（范围 3.5-48.3 个月；n=17）。
本综述强调了 AWMSG 在 5 年期间开展的工作，并提供了证据支持评估流程的有效性，即威尔士的患者能够更早地获得药品，并通过与 NICE 的重复评估减少了效率。
