Pembrolizumab has delivered significant clinical benefits in Portugal. Our results suggest that more timely reimbursement decisions and broader access could have yielded measurable additional health gains. These findings highlight the potential impact of access timelines on health outcomes, while acknowledging that broader assessments of value require consideration of cost-effectiveness, budget impact, and opportunity costs. Pembrolizumab's benefits to the Portuguese health system is expected to grow through 2030.
MOAI Consulting developed the AMPLIFY tool to estimate the clinical and humanistic benefits associated with pembrolizumab use across reimbursed indications in Portugal. Published in PharmacoEconomics – Open, the study estimated that, between 2017 and 2024, pembrolizumab treatment for 13,530 patients generated 14,042 additional quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), 17,914 additional life years, and 2,021 avoided deaths. The analysis also showed that faster reimbursement and broader access could have generated up to 14,705 additional QALYs and 1,250 further avoided deaths.
Robust population-level modelling is essential to understand the wider impact of innovative treatments and the health gains associated with timely access. By combining validated Portugal-adapted cost-effectiveness models with real-world treatment data, MOAI’s work supports better-informed decisions that can improve patient outcomes and maximise the value of innovation for the Portuguese healthcare system.
