London, 2 January 2021
Job Description
The European Commission has been funded a R&D project entitled “Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomics (U-PGx): Making actionable pharmacogenomic data and effective treatment optimization accessible to every European citizen” under the Call H2020-PHC-2015-two-stage (Prj No. 668353-2).
Pharmacogenomics (PGx) is the study of genetic variability affecting an individual’s response to a drug. Clinical application of pharmacogenomics knowledge will result in less ‘trial and error’ prescribing and more efficacious, safer and cost-effective drug therapy. However, despite the major advances in PGx and several commercially available PGx tests, its application in routine patient care remains very limited.
The U-PGx consortium will address major challenges and obstacles for implementation of PGx testing in patient care, taking into account the diversity of healthcare systems and citizens across Europe. Specifically, U-PGx will investigate if the emerging approach of pre-emptive genotyping of an entire panel of important PGx markers is cost-effective and results in a better outcome for patients. With the pre-emptive PGx testing approach data on multiple important pharmacogenes are collected prospectively and embedded into the patients’ electronic record. Typically, it alerts prescribers and pharmacists through electronic clinical decision support systems when a drug is ordered or dispensed for a patient with an at-risk genotype. The new model of personalised medicine through pre-emptive PGx-testing will be conducted at a large scale in seven existing European health care environments (The Netherlands, Spain, UK, Italy, Austria, Greece, Slovenia).
The Golden Helix Foundation is leader of the work package WP5: Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and cost-effectiveness analysis and responsible for the Proposition and implementation of a new EU model and methodological concept of cost-effectiveness analysis, taking into account the restriction of budget.
The selected candidates will be involved in the implementation of the Task 5.3 based on the collected data from the University of Patras. More specifically, he/she will be responsible for:
1. Propose an alternative methodological approach for decision making which takes into account the budget constraint and relaxing the constant-return-on-scale assumption of λ. In other words, the new model will combine the cost-effectiveness analysis, budget impact analysis and social preferences while relaxing the assumption that willingness to pay (λ) is indifferent of the actual difference in effectiveness between interventions. This rational would provide a practical guide by which policy makers could ensure the sustainability of funding given the restriction of budget;
2. Based on the classical decision making approach of cost effectiveness analysis, ICER is compared with a fixed amount which a policymaker is willing to pay (λ) for an additional QALY. In this methodology context, if ICER is below λ, the new intervention meets the basic criterion for reimbursement by the payers, assuming that the policy makers are willing to pay this amount, regardless of the amount of QALYs “purchased”, ignoring in that way the budget constraint;
3. Certain limitations must be considered in this approach, since there is no clear linkage between λ and the budget affordability of health services, while it assumes, silently, an instant adjustment of budget to absorb the cost of innovation, which may lead to the adoption of costly decisions which can consequently increase expenditures for healthcare systems. Even if the budget does not face hard constraints, it is reasonable to assume that there is an upper budget bound, especially nowadays in the presence of global economic crisis.
4. The envisaged model represents the link between the willingness to pay threshold towards the budget limit, which can be particularly helpful in developing and resource-limited countries, where there are often significant budget limitations. As such, this model would provide a new conceptual methodology for the betterment of our understanding in decision making process and would be particularly useful to perform economic evaluation studies of novel genomic medicine interventions in different EU member states and healthcare systems to assess cost consequences of the implementation of pharmacogenomic testing, taking into account healthcare budget differences, so that resource allocation in these countries could be optimized;
5. Outcomes will also provide essential insights for guiding European health insurance organizations and national stakeholders in strategies for reimbursement of PGx testing.
The Golden Helix Foundation is organising an open competition, based on qualifications, to recruit new researchers to undertake the above described task. This notice covers three positions. A candidate may only apply to one of them.
COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT FORM
ORGANISATION/COMPANY: Golden Helix Foundation
POSITION 1: Researcher on Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and cost-effectiveness analysis of data collected by the University of Patras, Greece
SCIENTIFIC FIELD: Bioinformatics
DURATION: Jan. 2021 to June 2021
START DATE (earliest): January 11, 2021
PROJECT DURATION: Up to June 30, 2021 with possibility of extension according to the needs of the project
BUDGET (aprox.): 4,827.35 euro /month
ANNOUNCEMENT DATE: 02.01.2021
ENTRY DEADLINE: 09.01.2021
LINK TO WEBSITE: https://www.goldenhelix.org/
KEY WORDS: bioinformatics, pharmacogenomics, individualized medicine, generic economic model
DESCRIPTION: (subject matter, expectations, opinions):
I. Candidates should have:
1. university education – completed 1st and 2nd degree studies in pharmacy 2. average of all grades at five-year university at least 6.5 of 10 3. Ph.D holder 4. substantiated research experience on bioinformatics and pharmacogenomics in the country or abroad 5. Excellent English and Greek language competence 6. predispositions for scientific research and didactic work confirmed by scientific supervisor 7. substantiated publications on international journals or conferences.
COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT FORM
ORGANISATION/COMPANY: Golden Helix Foundation
POSITION 2: Senior Researcher on Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and cost-effectiveness analysis of data collected by the University of Patras, Greece
SCIENTIFIC FIELD: Psychiatric genomics
DURATION: Jan. 2021 to June 2021
START DATE (earliest): January 11, 2021
PROJECT DURATION: Up to June 30, 2021 with possibility of extension according to the needs of the project
BUDGET (aprox.): 5,016.55 euro /month
ANNOUNCEMENT DATE: 02.01.2021
ENTRY DEADLINE: 09.01.2021
LINK TO WEBSITE: https://www.goldenhelix.org/
KEY WORDS: genomics, psychiatric, patient recruitment, pharmacogenomics, individualized medicine, generic economic model
DESCRIPTION: (subject matter, expectations, opinions):
I. Candidates should have:
1. university education – completed 1st and 2nd degree studies in chemistry, biochemistry and biotechnology 2. average of all grades at four-year university at least 6.5 of 10 3. Ph.D holder 4. substantiated research experience in psychiatric genomics and pharmacogenomics in the country or abroad 5. Excellent English and Greek language competence 6. predispositions for scientific research and didactic work confirmed by scientific supervisor 7. substantiated work experience at least four years on large scale R&D projects 8. substantiated publications on international journals and conferences.
COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT FORM
ORGANISATION/COMPANY: Golden Helix Foundation
POSITION 3: Researcher on Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and cost-effectiveness analysis using a newly generated generic economic model
SCIENTIFIC FIELD: Informatics
DURATION: Jan. 2021 to June 2021
START DATE (earliest): January 11, 2021
PROJECT DURATION: Up to June 30, 2021 with possibility of extension according to the needs of the project
BUDGET (aprox.): 4,094.31 euro /month
ANNOUNCEMENT DATE: 02.01.2021
ENTRY DEADLINE: 09.01.2021
LINK TO WEBSITE: https://www.goldenhelix.org/
KEY WORDS: genomics, psychiatric, patient recruitment, pharmacogenomics, individualized medicine, generic economic model
DESCRIPTION: (subject matter, expectations, opinions):
I. Candidates should have:
1. university education – completed 1st and 2nd degree studies in computing and information technology 2. average of all grades at four-year university at least 6.5 of 10 3. substantiated research experience in information technology and genetic databases in the country or abroad 4. Excellent English and Greek language competence 5. substantiated publications on international journals and conferences.
COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT FORM
ORGANISATION/COMPANY: Golden Helix Foundation
POSITION 4: Researcher on Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and cost-effectiveness analysis of data collected by the University of Patras, Greece and on PGx awareness to stakeholders
SCIENTIFIC FIELD: Medical Molecular Genetics Analysis
DURATION: Jan. 2021 to June 2021
START DATE (earliest): January 11, 2021
PROJECT DURATION: Up to June 30, 2021 with possibility of extension according to the needs of the project
BUDGET (aprox.): 5,446.54 euro /month
ANNOUNCEMENT DATE: 02.01.2021
ENTRY DEADLINE: 09.01.2021
LINK TO WEBSITE: https://www.goldenhelix.org/
KEY WORDS: pharmacogenomics, individualized medicine, dissemination
DESCRIPTION: (subject matter, expectations, opinions):
I. Candidates should have:
1. university education – completed 1st degree studies in biology 2. average of all grades at four-year university at least 6.5 of 10 3. Ph.D holder 4. substantiated research experience on molecular genetics analysis, on pharmacogenomics and on dissemination of research outputs in the country or abroad 5. Excellent English and Greek language competence 6. predispositions for scientific research and didactic work confirmed by scientific supervisor 7. substantiated publications on international journals or conferences.
Eligibility criteria
II. The application should include:
1. Application form to Managing Director, CV 2. Copy of the university 1st and 2nd degree certifications 3. Copy of Ph.D or M.Sc diplomas 4. List of scientific achievements and publications with number of points 5. Copy of research and work experience certifications 6. Statement of consent to the processing of personal data contained in the offer.
Documents confirming the qualifications and abilities should be submitted at the Golden Helix foundation, 16, Northumberland avenue, Craven House, London WC2N 5AP, United Kingdom, till 09.01.2021.
Web site for additional job details
The result of the competition will be announced on the Website of the Foundation.
