Improving health equity is vital for individual and societal well-being, as evidenced by significant disparities in life expectancy across England. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) emphasizes the importance of reducing health inequalities, recognizing that drug development and assessment can play a crucial role. Health technology assessment (HTA) agencies must incorporate equity considerations, particularly for conditions with known disparities, to encourage pharmaceutical companies to generate supportive evidence. Distributional cost-effectiveness analysis (DCEA) has emerged as a valuable method for evaluating health benefits and costs across different populations, as demonstrated in NICE’s recent appraisal of exagamglogene autotemcel for sickle cell disease. Establishing a collaborative health equity framework could standardize equity considerations in HTA and enhance equitable access to medicines, enabling health-driven prosperity.
