Impact of regulatory tightening of the Hungarian tobacco retail market on availability, access and cigarette smoking prevalence of adolescents

INTRODUCTION

Policies that reduce tobacco retail density to decrease tobacco use among the youth are critical for the tobacco endgame. This paper reviews a Hungarian tobacco regulatory measure, which, since 2013, has confined the sale of tobacco products exclusively to so-called National Tobacco Shops, summarises the changes in the national tobacco retail marketplace and reports on analyses of the impact of this intervention on illegal sales to minors and adolescent smoking behaviour.

METHODS

We reviewed the available national statistical data on the structure and dynamics of the tobacco retail market. Changes in lifetime and current (past 30 days) use of cigarettes among Hungarian adolescents aged 13-17 years were assessed using data from international youth surveys on health behaviours collected in 2010-2020.

RESULTS

Since the start of policy implementation, the density of tobacco shops in Hungary decreased by 85%, from 4.1 to 0.6 per 1000 persons. The prevalence of lifetime and current cigarette smoking among adolescents declined by 13-24 percentage points (pp) and by 4.8-15 pp, respectively. The rate of illegal sales of tobacco products to minors decreased by 27.6 pp, although the prevalence of compensatory access strategies, especially asking others to buy cigarettes for minors, increased.

CONCLUSIONS

After a significant decrease in the nationwide availability of licensed tobacco retailers, Hungary experienced short-term reductions in youth smoking prevalence. However, the sporadic implementation of complementary, evidence-based tobacco control strategies might limit further declines in youth smoking initiation and tobacco product use.

Capacity Building for HTA Implementation in Middle-Income Countries: The Case of Hungary

OBJECTIVES

Middle-income countries often have no clear roadmap for implementation of health technology assessment (HTA) in policy decisions. Examples from high-income countries may not be relevant, as lower income countries cannot allocate so much financial and human resources for substantiating policy decisions with evidence. Therefore, HTA implementation roadmaps from other smaller-size, lower-income countries can be more relevant examples for countries with similar cultural environment and economic status.

METHODS

We reviewed the capacity building process for HTA implementation in Hungary with special focus on the role of ISPOR Hungary Chapter.

RESULTS

HTA implementation in Hungary started with capacity building at universities with the support of the World Bank in the mid 90's, followed by the publication of methodological guidelines for conducting health economic evaluations in 2002. The Hungarian Health Economics Association (META) - established in 2003 - has been recognized as a driving force of HTA implementation. META became the official regional ISPOR Chapter of Hungary in 2007. In 2004 the National Health Insurance Fund Administration made the cost-effectiveness and budget impact criteria compulsory prior to granting reimbursement to new pharmaceuticals. An Office of Health Technology Assessment was established for the critical appraisal of economic evaluations submitted by pharmaceutical manufacturers. In 2010 multicriteria decision analysis was introduced for new hospital technologies.

CONCLUSION

The economic crisis may create an opportunity to further strengthen the evidence base of health care decision-making in Hungary. In the forthcoming period ISPOR Hungary Chapter may play an even more crucial role in improving the standards of HTA implementation and facilitating international collaboration with other CEE countries.

Principles of pharmacoeconomics and their impact on strategic imperatives of pharmaceutical research and development

The importance of evidence-based health policy is widely acknowledged among health care professionals, patients and politicians. Health care resources available for medical procedures, including pharmaceuticals, are limited all over the world. Economic evaluations help to alleviate the burden of scarce resources by improving the allocative efficiency of health care financing. Reimbursement of new medicines is subject to their cost-effectiveness and affordability in more and more countries. There are three major approaches to calculate the cost-effectiveness of new pharmaceuticals. Economic analyses alongside pivotal clinical trials are often inconclusive due to the suboptimal collection of economic data and protocol-driven costs. The major limitation of observational naturalistic economic evaluations is the selection bias and that they can be conducted only after registration and reimbursement. Economic modelling is routinely used to predict the cost-effectiveness of new pharmaceuticals for reimbursement purposes. Accuracy of cost-effectiveness estimates depends on the quality of input variables; validity of surrogate end points; and appropriateness of modelling assumptions, including model structure, time horizon and sophistication of the model to differentiate clinically and economically meaningful outcomes. These economic evaluation methods are not mutually exclusive; in practice, economic analyses often combine data collection alongside clinical trials or observational studies with modelling. The need for pharmacoeconomic evidence has fundamentally changed the strategic imperatives of research and development (R&D). Therefore, professionals in pharmaceutical R&D have to be familiar with the principles of pharmacoeconomics, including the selection of health policy-relevant comparators, analytical techniques, measurement of health gain by quality-adjusted life-years and strategic pricing of pharmaceuticals.

[Cost control techniques in Hungarian medicine reimbursement]

Health care, and especially reimbursement of medicaments has limited financial resources. The gap between the medically possible and economically acceptable is becoming wider. To keep the costs at a low level, cost controll techniques should be used. The severity of current Hungarian economic situation gives extra actuality of this question. This paper gives a short review of cost control techniques adopted in Hungary during the last approximately 20 years, analyses the present financial situation of health care by focusing on pharmaceutical market, and displays the possible alternative solutions.

Does therapeutic reference pricing always result in cost-containment? The Hungarian evidence

Therapeutic reference pricing is one of the potential cost containment methods for pharmaceuticals. The most critical question of reference pricing is how to select reference product(s) if their efficacy is different, especially if different strengths of the same substance are available. Authors describe the Hungarian experience related to the introduction of therapeutic reference pricing for statin therapies as of 1 September 2003. The National Health Insurance Fund selected the reference products based on their low price per DDD. Therapeutic reference pricing was expected to reduce the expenditure on statins by switching therapy to cheaper alternatives and therefore decreasing the average price per prescribed unit. The National Health Insurance Fund expected price erosion not only for branded products directly affected by generics but even for patented ones. Despite generic price erosion of simvastatin, the average unit price of statins was reduced by only 3% at 7 months after the introduction of the reference pricing system. During the same period the average DDD per prescription was increased from 1.14 to 1.65. The price of patented statins did not change over this period. Introduction of therapeutic reference pricing neglected evidence-based medicine results and ultimately increased the expenditure on statins in Hungary. Selection of the cheapest DDD per unit as the reference product resulted in growth of DDD per prescription, and consequently increased price per prescribed unit of statins. The failure of the system could have been even more dramatic if increased utilisation of generic statins had not reduced the negative effect of therapeutic reference pricing. Based upon the first experiences of the Hungarian implementation, the method described in this paper for the extension of generic reference pricing to therapeutic categories is not justifiable.