title: BEACON: A Summary Framework to Overcome Potential Reimbursement Hurdles.
abstract: To provide a framework for addressing payers' criteria during the development of pharmaceuticals.
  
  
  
  A conceptual framework was presented to an international health economic expert panel for discussion. A structured literature search (from 2010 to May 2015), using the following databases in Ovid: Medline(®) and Medline(®) In-Process (PubMed), Embase (Ovid), EconLit (EBSCOhost) and the National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED), and a 'grey literature' search, were conducted to identify existing criteria from the payer perspective. The criteria assessed by existing frameworks and guidelines were collated; the most commonly reported criteria were considered for inclusion in the framework. A mnemonic was conceived as a memory aide to summarise these criteria.
  
  
  
  Overall, 41 publications were identified as potentially relevant to the objective. Following further screening, 26 were excluded upon full-text review on the basis of no framework presented (n = 13), redundancy (n = 11) or abstract only (n = 2). Frameworks that captured criteria developed for or utilised by the pharmaceutical industry (n = 5) and reimbursement guidance (n = 10) were reviewed. The most commonly identified criteria-unmet need/patient burden, safety, efficacy, quality-of-life outcomes, environment, evidence quality, budget impact and comparator-were incorporated into the summary framework. For ease of communication, the following mnemonic was developed: BEACON (Burden/target population, Environment, Affordability/value, Comparator, Outcomes, Number of studies/quality of evidence).
  
  
  
  The BEACON framework aims to capture the 'essence' of payer requirements by addressing the most commonly described criteria requested by payers regarding the introduction of a new pharmaceutical.
authors.affiliation: Mundipharma International Limited, Cambridge, UK. will.dunlop@mundipharma.co.uk.
authors.forename: William C N
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Dunlop
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: C Daniel
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Mullins
authors.affiliation: Olaf Pirk Consult, Nuremberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Pirk
authors.affiliation: Goeree Consulting, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goeree
authors.affiliation: Unit of PharmacoEpidemiology and PharmacoEconomics (PE2), Department of Pharmacy, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.|Institute of Science in Healthy Aging and Healthcare (SHARE), University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.|Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Maarten J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Postma
authors.affiliation: Adelphi Values Limited, Bollington, UK.
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Enstone
authors.affiliation: Adelphi Values Limited, Bollington, UK.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Heron
mesh_terms: D000004:Abbreviations as Topic; D015195:Drug Design; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000191:economics*; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations