Our results should be viewed as an initial step in a multi-stakeholder dialogue on HTA implementation. Each MENA country should develop its context-specific HTA roadmap, as such roadmaps are not transferable without taking into account country size, economic status, public health priorities and adopted systems of health care financing.

Worldwide, health care decision makers are challenged to set priorities in an environment in which the demand for health care services outweighs the allocated resources. Effective pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement systems, based on health technology assessment (HTA) that encompasses economic evaluations, are essential to an efficient sustainable health care system. The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population was encouraged to establish a pharmacoeconomic unit, as an initial step, for the support of pricing and reimbursement decisions. We anticipate that standardization of reporting would lead to a progressive improvement in the quality of submissions over time and provide the Egyptian health care system with health economic evidence often unavailable in the past. Therefore, recommendations for pharmacoeconomic evaluations provide an essential tool for the support of a transparent and uniform process in the evaluation of the clinical benefit and costs of drugs that do not rely on the use of low acquisition cost as the primary basis for selection. These recommendations will help inform health care decisions in improving health care systems and achieving better health for the Egyptian population.

Objective: Estimating the burden of obesity to society is an essential step in setting priorities and raising awareness. We aimed to assess the clinical, humanistic and economic burden of obesity for adults in Egypt.Methods: We used the population attributable fraction concept to estimate the burden. A non-systematic review was conducted to estimate the prevalence of obesity and its comorbidities in addition to the obesity attributable fraction. Patient numbers, direct healthcare costs, disability adjusted life years (DALYs) and attributable mortality were estimated.Results: Obesity is a major contributor to the development of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea and fatty liver, in addition to several serious diseases. The estimated annual deaths due to obesity was about 115 thousand (19.08% of the total estimated deaths in 2020). DALYs attributable to obesity may have reached 4 million in 2020.The economic burden imposed by obesity is around 62 Billion Egyptian pounds annually. This value is the cost of treating diseases attributable to obesity in adults.Conclusions: Diseases attributable to obesity create a huge economic, humanistic, and clinical burden in Egypt. Reducing obesity could help dramatically decrease the catastrophic health effect of these diseases which in turn decreases mortality and DALYs lost.

Background The Egyptian healthcare system has multiple stakeholders, including a wide range of public and private healthcare providers and several financing agents. This study sheds light on the healthcare system’s financing mechanisms and the flow of funds in Egypt. It also explores the expected challenges facing the system with the upcoming changes. Methods We conducted a systematic review of relevant papers through the PubMed and Scopus search engines, in addition to searching gray literature through the ISPOR presentations database and the Google search engine. Articles related to Egypt’s healthcare system financing from 2009 to 2019 were chosen for full-text review. Data were aggregated to estimate budgets and financing routes. Results We analyzed the data of 56 out of 454 identified records. Governmental health expenditure represented approximately one-third of the total health expenditure (THE). Total health expenditure as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) was almost stagnant in the last 12 years, with a median of 5.5%. The primary healthcare financing source is out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure, representing more than 60% of THE, followed by government spending through the Ministry of Finance, around 37% of THE. The pharmaceutical expenditure as a percent of THE ranged from 26.0 to 37.0%. Conclusions Although THE as an absolute number is increasing, total health expenditure as a percentage of GDP is declining. The Egyptian healthcare market is based mainly on OOP expenditures and the next period anticipates a shift toward more public spending after Universal Health Insurance gets implemented.

Introduction: Although previously regarded as a children's disease, it is clear that atopic dermatitis (AD) is also highly prevalent in adults. Because AD is not associated with mortality, it is usually neglected compared with other, fatal diseases. However, several studies have highlighted that AD burden is significant due to its substantial humanistic burden and psychosocial effects. This study aims to summarize and quantify the clinical, economic, and humanistic burden of AD in adults and adolescents. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD),