Allocation of Resources for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Interventions in Rare Diseases

The health system is facing limited financial resources in all countries. Resource allocation is one of the tasks of the health system. Prioritizing interventions is one of the strategies that can help health policymakers in allocating financial resources. Rare diseases require more attention than other diseases due to their high cost and complex treatments. The countries use different policies to determine the effectiveness of interventions in the field of rare diseases. The purpose of this study is to refer to some policies in the field of allocating resources for rare diseases and to explain the importance of determining the threshold of cost-effectiveness for rare diseases in Iran.

This research is a review study. First, a study was conducted on how to prioritize health interventions in the world and the thresholds of cost-effectiveness in different countries. Articles related to the research topic were then searched in accessible databases in Iran such as SID, Google Scholar and Medline. Finally, the obtained articles were screened and analyzed based on a thematic approach.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a threshold for determining the cost-effectiveness of health system interventions, that is determined and calculated based on the per capita GDP of each country. There are many differences between countries on policies related to the treatment of rare diseases, medicines, health care budgets and patient access.

Due to the very high cost of treating rare diseases, it is impossible to use the threshold used for general disease interventions in rare diseases and it is necessary to use a higher threshold for rare diseases. In addition to cost-effectiveness, budget, justice, feasibility, and other criteria that are considered important at the national level should be considered.