The fifth Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi) Asia Policy Forum (APF) was held in Beijing, November 2017. The topic of the meeting was ‘Universal Health Care in the Asia Region: Overcoming the Barriers using HTA and Real World Data’. This presentation will focus on the goal of achieving universal health care (UHC) in the Asia region, and specifically the perspective of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The 2017 HTAi APF had senior representatives from HTA agencies, academia, industry active in the region plus representatives from the WHO Geneva office and the Western Pacific Regional Office. A keynote presentation was delivered by the WHO representative and there were guided breakout group discussions.

UHC is a key component of the overall aims and objectives of the WHO; universal access to safe, effective, quality and affordable medicines and vaccines for all is at the heart of this. Pharmaceutical spending varies widely across the Asia region and all countries in the region share common problems in attaining UHC. These include inadequate financing, inefficiencies in procurement and supply chain management, limited use of effective pricing policies and negotiations, substandard quality of medicines and widespread inappropriate prescribing and use.

HTA can be used to help countries in the Asia region to achieve UHC; it is a tool to support good decision making and hence can help promote more efficient allocation of limited resources. Affordability, however, needs to be at the center of any decision to invest or disinvest, and incremental cost effectiveness ratios should not be used as the sole basis for decision making.