Professor Emeritus Lou Garrison recently gave three talks at a health technology assessment conference sponsored by KazSPOR and HTAi in Astana, Kazakhstan. He gave two short talks and a one-hour lecture on the basic economics of innovative pharmaceuticals. He began working three years ago with Dr. Alex Kostyuk, the founder and leader of HTA there, and with Dr. Alima Almadiyeva, who he mentored during her Fulbright-Humphreys fellowship at Emery University. His talks dovetail with his efforts as chair of a new ISPOR Special Interest Group on Global Access to Medical Innovation. He says that: “We urgently need to address the access or drug lag to innovative medicines in low- and middle-income countries by encouraging more efficient HTA and establishing more a more effective approach to global differential pricing.” This SIG is new and will have another information and recruitment session at the upcoming ISPOR meeting in Atlanta.
Lou was also able to visit the “Little Switzerland” by Lake Buraby, north of Astana, where he encountered a group of students eager to meet a UW faculty member.
The meeting sessions are available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=HTA2024KZ+(En)