What happened: ICMR DG Rajiv Bahl connects reimbursement for innovative therapies with evidence generation

ICMR Director General (DG) Rajiv Bahl chaired a session titled “Reimbursement Mechanisms for Innovative Therapies in India’s Path to Universal Health Coverage (UHC)”. Rajiv Bahl highlighted evidence-based decision-making so that medical innovation results in affordable, accessible and sustainable healthcare.

Rajiv Bahl emphasised a clear link between evidence and public-sector policy functions that decide whether innovative therapies receive funding and get used in health systems: Robust clinical evidence should underpin regulatory decisions, reimbursement decisions and procurement decisions.High-quality evidence on clinical effectiveness is essential for meaningful cost-effectiveness analysis and health-economic assessment (health-economics evaluation of value for money).Rajiv Bahl warned that seeking exemptions from evidence generation can make it difficult for a technology to establish its value before Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and before reimbursement and procurement authorities.

Background and earlier position: why evidence-based reimbursement matters for UHC

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) requires governments to decide which health services and therapies to fund. Public decisions typically depend on a chain: regulatory approval, evaluation through HTA (Health Technology Assessment), and then reimbursement and procurement choices by health systems. Credible evidence helps justify that a therapy benefits patients and also fits within limited health budgets.

Evidence-based reimbursement helps health systems expand access while controlling waste in public spending. This is the governance context in which Rajiv Bahl’s emphasis on clinical evidence and HTA fits.

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