The National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA), Ministry of Health and Welfare, in collaboration with the Center for Health Policy and Technology Assessment (CHPTA) and the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), held the 3rd Taiwan–UK HTA Collaboration Workshop on May 28 and 29, 2025.
To deepen the outcomes of collaboration and draw on international implementation experience, the NHIA and CHPTA jointly organized the one-and-a-half-day 3rd Taiwan–UK HTA Collaboration Workshop this year. The workshop focused on the design and implementation of the UK's Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), with in-depth discussions and exchanges on topics such as the rationale and framework of Managed Access Agreements (MAAs), implementation structures, data collection agreements, and re-evaluation mechanisms.
The workshop featured two distinguished experts from NICE. One was Brad Groves, a senior director at NICE specializing in managed access agreements and health policy assessment. He brings extensive experience in strategic framework design and has long been committed to advancing the adoption of innovative medical technologies. The other was Juan Yanguela, an expert in the practical implementation of managed access agreements, data collection strategies, and stakeholder engagement. He is particularly skilled at translating HTA outcomes into concrete practices to enhance policy effectiveness.
Cancer has remained the leading cause of death in Taiwan for many consecutive years. In response, President Lai has launched the Healthy Taiwan Policy, aiming to reduce the cancer mortality rate by one-third by 2030. It is hoped that through the UK's sharing of its Cancer Drugs Fund system and managed access agreements, Taiwan can further enhance its provisional funding mechanism for cancer drugs, enabling patients to gain earlier access to innovative treatments.
According to the NHIA, starting January 1, 2025, a special allocation of NT$5 billion from the government's general budget has been injected into the National Health Insurance Fund to support the provisional funding mechanism for new cancer drugs.
On February 25, 2025, the NHIA announced the operational guidelines for the provisional funding mechanism for new cancer drugs. Eligible drugs under this mechanism include those with marketing authorization and clear clinical efficacy evidence, but which have not yet been reimbursed due to global budget constraints, as well as other drugs deemed necessary by the NHIA.
The NHIA stated that it plans to establish an administrative legal entity in the future to advance HTA methodologies, cultivate HTA professionals, and lay the foundation for a value- and cost-effectiveness-based reimbursement framework for drugs under the National Health Insurance. Since the establishment of the CHPTA on January 1, 2024, the NHIA has drafted the Act for the Establishment of the National Health Technology Assessment Center, marking a key step toward the formation of an administrative legal entity.
Through this intensive and face-to-face knowledge exchange, Taiwan aims to draw on the UK NICE's practical experience with the Cancer Drugs Fund and managed access agreements to strengthen the development of its own system, improve operational efficiency, and accelerate the adoption of innovative medical technologies.
These efforts are expected to enhance public health, improve the quality of healthcare, and reduce the financial burden on patients. The NHIA will continue to advance health policies grounded in scientific evidence, fulfilling its commitment to the Healthy Taiwan Policy.