Executive Summary
The use of Precision Medicine (PM) is increasing across Asia at a pace that outstrips the capacity of existing Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and reimbursement systems to respond. The “Workshop on Paying for Precision Medicine Sustainably in Asia: Reimbursement Barriers, Enablers, and Implications for Health Technology Assessment”, convened from 2 to 4 June 2026 in Khao Yai, Thailand, brought together 32 participants from nine countries, namely Brunei Darussalam, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand, representing HTA agencies, clinical experts, patient advocates, industry, and the research team. The workshop was organised as part of the Precision HeAlth Transformative Technology Assessment Initiative (PHAT-TAI), a collaboration between the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore (SSHSPH NUS) and the Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program Foundation (HITAP), Thailand, under the auspices of HTAsiaLink.
Country presentations confirmed that PM reimbursement across the region varies substantially in institutional maturity and approach, from single-payer systems without dedicated HTA agencies to phased national PM programmes underpinned by cost-utility analyses and other HTA studies. Across systems, common challenges were the persistent mismatch between treatment reimbursement and the funding of the diagnostic test; the absence of PM-specific HTA and prioritisation frameworks in most countries; and the lack of representativeness of genomic data of populations
from the Asia-Pacific region. Further, discussions reiterated that the promise of PM depends on equitable, affordable, and geographically accessible pathways, not diagnostic capability alone. These considerations operate within the broader commitment to achieving and sustaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Working sessions produced recommendations across five challenge domains, namely evidentiary, regulatory, financing, infrastructure, and patient and social barriers, for both public health interventions and rare disease, and for precision oncology and pharmacogenomic testing. No single financing mechanism was found sufficient; blended financing, managed entry agreements, and government commissioned research were proposed as complementary responses, with governance reform and the presence of clinical and political champions identified as the binding conditions for any model to succeed. The PICCOTEAM framework, a set of 46 methodological considerations for PM economic evaluation, was introduced as a practical resource to strengthen the evidence base for reimbursement decisions, with country-specific adaptation workshops proposed as a near-term follow-up activity.
The outcomes from this workshop align well with the global momentum on PM, as evidenced by the recent World Health Assembly Resolution on the topic. Looking ahead, participants shared potential follow-on activities such as convening national multi-stakeholder forums, contributing to planned Delphi study publications, and maintaining the regional network through webinars and ongoing correspondence. A regional follow-up meeting was proposed within twelve to eighteen months. The outputs of this workshop are intended to support the translation of global policy commitments on PM into practical, country-level reimbursement action across Asia.
