Oman has taken a significant step forward in strengthening its health technology assessment (HTA) framework, becoming the fourth country in the Middle East to establish explicit cost-effectiveness thresholds (CETs) for healthcare technologies.
A stakeholder-driven study published in Health Economics Review provides a foundation for evaluating whether new medicines, treatments, and health technologies deliver sufficient value to justify investment within Oman’s healthcare system.
Key highlights of the proposed framework:
💰 Baseline threshold: 1× GDP per capita per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained.
📈 Multiple thresholds: The framework moves beyond a single threshold to reflect broader healthcare policy priorities and real-world decision-making.
🧬 Priority for orphan and high-burden diseases: A 2× multiplier may apply to orphan drugs and treatments for priority diseases, including cancer.
⚖️ Greater health gains: A continuous multiplier ranging from 1× to 3× may be applied to technologies delivering greater relative health benefits.
🎯 Potential for higher thresholds: When multiple criteria are met, combined multipliers could increase the threshold to as much as 12× GDP per capita for treatments addressing rare and high-priority conditions.
🗳️ Consensus-driven approach: The framework was developed through a national workshop followed by anonymous Mentimeter voting involving 20 experts from Oman’s Ministry of Health and University Medical City. This pragmatic approach helped establish an initial framework in the absence of extensive local cost-effectiveness data.
🌍 Why it matters: As healthcare systems worldwide face increasing pressure to manage limited resources while expanding access to innovative treatments, explicit cost-effectiveness thresholds can improve transparency, consistency, and predictability in reimbursement and funding decisions.
With this development, Oman joins Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in advancing formal HTA infrastructure in the region—a potentially important milestone in supporting evidence-based healthcare decision-making and the objectives of Oman Vision 2040.
⏳ The framework is expected to undergo review within three years, with future iterations potentially incorporating the perspectives of patients and the wider public.
