University of Sheffield [November/2013] School Of Health And Related Research From 2014 the English Department of Health are proposing to negotiate the price of pharmaceuticals directly with the companies through their proposed value-based pricing (VBP) scheme. The new mechanism will assess the cost-effectiveness of medicines taking into account a broader scope of value, including the severity and burden of the condition, unmet need, wider social benefits, therapeutic improvement and innovation. Although wider social benefits are considered implicitly in NICE committee decisions, the current system of appraisal does not capture these issues in any formal manner. The proposed approach, currently being finalised by NICE, was informed by a large programme of research conducted by academics at the University of Sheffield via the Policy Research Unit in Economic Evaluation of Health and Care Interventions (EEPRU) programme of work. The methods and results of the research are described in detail on the EEPRU webpages ( and the individual VBP projects include: Eliciting societal preferences for end of life, burden of illness, and therapeutic improvement Using an online survey of 3669 members of the general population and a discrete choice experiment, societal preferences for quality adjusted life year (QALY) gains from health care interventions were elicited across three characteristics. Support was found for end of life (defined by NICE as expected survival of less than 2 years and expected survival gain of 3 months or more) Modest support was found for burden of illness from a medical condition (defined as QALY loss due to premature mortality and morbidity) No support was found for therapeutic improvement (defined as preferences for large QALY gains that are disproportionately larger than the size of gain). Wider social benefits were explored in terms of Productivity Losses, Informal Care and Formal Care Productivity loss: Using data from the general population and patients with different health conditions, absence from work was linked to health related quality of life scores (EQ-5D) controlling for age and condition (ICD code). The results enable aggregate condition specific probabilities of absence from work to be determined from quality of life outputs generated from existing economic models. Informal care: Using patient data, informal care usage was linked to health related quality of life scores (EQ-5D) controlling for age and condition (ICD code). The results enable informal care associated with the health of the patient to be determined using quality of life outputs generated from existing economic models. Formal care: Using the Adult Social Care Survey supplemented with patient data, the costs of social care use (residential and non-residential) were estimated by EQ-5D scores and age groups. The research described in this article was funded by the Department of Health in England under the Policy Research Unit in Economic Evaluation of Health and Care Intervention (EEPRU) based at the University of Sheffield and University of York. The sponsors had no involvement in the analysis or interpretation of the data or findings described here.