Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR)
End-to-end HEOR solutions across the full development continuum
Clinical efficacy alone is rarely sufficient to secure reimbursement. In today’s world, payers and health technology assessment (HTA) bodies require clear evidence of economic value, comparative effectiveness and real-world impact before granting coverage and formulary inclusion. Generating this relevant economic and humanistic evidence for a variety of different stakeholders requires a multidisciplinary approach to the design, execution and analysis of data.
Syneos Health® Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) teams provide the analytical foundation for those decisions. Through health economic modeling, burden of illness studies, comparative effectiveness research, patient-reported outcomes and real-world outcomes analyses, we help sponsors quantify value, address uncertainty and support pricing and market access strategies across the globe.
Our multidisciplinary teams combine HEOR consulting with epidemiology, biostatistics, regulatory expertise and deep therapeutic area knowledge across early-stage evidence planning, rigorous study execution and strategic evidence activation. The result is coordinated economic and outcomes data designed to both withstand HTA scrutiny and drive confident access strategies.
Our Experience
25+
years delivering HEOR research across global markets
3
fully-integrated business units with dedicated HEOR expertise
50+
countries where Syneos Health HEOR data supports access decisions
HEOR expertise embedded where it counts most
Syneos Health brings HEOR capabilities together across Consulting, Clinical Development and Commercial Delivery rather than housing them in a single department, allowing us to connect evidence generation directly to the access strategies and commercial decisions that will ultimately determine a therapy's success.
Strategic HEOR Consulting and HTA Navigation
Our HEOR Consulting team brings strategic clarity to the evidence conversation across the full product lifecycle and around the globe. We partner with pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies to identify evidence gaps, design global value frameworks and prepare product submissions for NICE, G-BA, HAS, ICER, and other HTA bodies.
From pricing strategy to reimbursement positioning, we translate complex economic analyses into compelling, decision-ready narratives that resonate with payers and policymakers. Our consultants speak both the language of science and the language of policy.
Study Execution: Observational HEOR and Real World Evidence Generation
We execute the observational HEOR studies defined within a sponsor’s integrated evidence plan, generating the economic and real-world outcomes data required for HTA and reimbursement decisions. Our teams design and deliver a broad range of prospective and retrospective studies using claims data, electronic health records, registries and pragmatic methodologies to quantify comparative effectiveness, resource utilization and patient impact in routine care settings.
From Phase II through post-authorization commitments, we build a continuous, regulator-aligned evidence base that evolves with the product and the market.
Commercial Delivery: HEOR and Market Access
Generating evidence is only half the equation. Our Commercial Delivery team, including our dedicated Value and Access practice and Medical Affairs and Payer Marketing capabilities, translates HEOR findings into value dossiers, budget impact models and payer engagement tools that strengthen pricing strategy and accelerate formulary inclusion.
We can deploy Medical Science Liaison (MSL) teams trained in health economics or equip your existing field and access teams with the tools, training and value narratives they need to engage payers and healthcare providers (HCPs) with confidence. In both models, we help increase payer credibility, improve negotiation readiness and convert HEOR investment into sustained commercial performance.
A full spectrum of HEOR research capabilities
Our HEOR teams deliver across every methodological discipline, from study conception and protocol development through modeling, global submissions and lifecycle management.
De novo and adapted decision-analytic models (Markov, partitioned survival, microsimulation) built to meet the technical specifications of major HTA agencies and payer audiences worldwide.
Payer-facing budget impact models that quantify affordability at the plan, system, and national levels—a critical complement to cost-effectiveness evidence during formulary negotiations.
Quantification of the direct medical expenditures, indirect costs such as productivity loss and caregiver burden, and the humanistic burden associated with a disease. These analyses provide foundational inputs for value argument development.
Development, validation and deployment of PRO instruments, health utility studies (EQ-5D, SF-36, preference-based measures) and quality-of-life assessments that meet FDA and EMA evidentiary standards.
Rigorous, PRISMA-compliant systematic reviews and network meta-analyses that establish comparative effectiveness and economic context, serving as essential inputs for HTA submissions and value dossiers.
End-to-end value dossier development, from core global dossiers aligned to the Common HTA Dossier framework to country-specific adaptations for NICE, AMNOG, SMC, HAS, TLV and other national bodies.
Real-world analyses of treatment patterns, resource consumption and deviations from clinical guidelines—critical for contextualizing trial outcomes for payers.
Integration of economic endpoints, including resource utilization, health utility and PROs, directly into Phase II–IV clinical trials to ensure prospective, robust data collection suitable for HTA submission.
Primary and secondary payer research, global pricing assessments and stakeholder engagement strategies that inform negotiation readiness across the US, UK, EU and emerging markets.
Strategic HEOR consulting upstream in development to identify evidence gaps, design integrated evidence plans and ensure that Phase II decisions account for long-term payer expectations.
Post-launch retrospective analyses using administrative claims, EMR data and registries to confirm real-world cost-effectiveness and support lifecycle management and expanded indication strategies.
Design and analytical support for outcomes-based and risk-sharing agreements, helping manufacturers and payers align on value metrics, measurement protocols and contractual frameworks.
AI-Powered HEOR: Faster Evidence, Sharper Insights
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are transforming how HEOR research is designed, executed and delivered. At Syneos Health, we apply AI to accelerate evidence generation while maintaining scientific rigor and regulatory alignment.
Traditional HEOR activities such as literature synthesis, database analysis and economic modeling can now be completed faster and with greater precision. Our AI HEOR capabilities support rapid systematic literature reviews, adaptive economic models that evolve as new data emerges, and advanced analytics that identify patient subgroups and treatment heterogeneity beyond conventional statistical methods.
We embed machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) at key stages of study design, evidence synthesis and value communication. AI-assisted systematic reviews reduce manual burden while maintaining PRISMA standards. Predictive modeling tools help identify evidence gaps earlier in development. Generative AI tools, applied responsibly under strict quality governance frameworks, accelerate development of value dossiers, HTA submissions and payer communication materials.
Beyond efficiency, AI expands the scientific possibilities of HEOR. Advanced causal inference methods strengthen treatment effect estimation in large observational datasets. Federated learning approaches enable multi-country analyses across distributed data sources while preserving data privacy and complying with strict data sovereignty requirements.
Why choose Syneos Health for HEOR?
Syneos Health connects HEOR strategy, evidence generation and market access execution within a single, integrated model. Our teams design value frameworks, generate real world and economic evidence, and translate findings into HTA-ready submissions and payer engagement tools without handoffs across vendors.
Because HEOR is embedded across Consulting, Clinical Development and Commercial Delivery, evidence plans are aligned to payer expectations from the outset and carried through to launch. The result is credible, decision-ready evidence that supports reimbursement, pricing and access in global markets.
Build a value story grounded in real world evidence.
Whether you're designing your first HEOR study, preparing a global HTA submission, or rethinking how AI can accelerate your outcomes research program, our team is ready to help.
FAQ
Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) is a scientific discipline that evaluates the clinical, economic and humanistic value of healthcare interventions to inform decision-making across the product lifecycle. It plays a central role in supporting reimbursement, pricing and market access decisions by generating evidence aligned to payer and health technology assessment (HTA) requirements.
HEOR applies methods such as health economic modeling, comparative effectiveness research, patient-reported outcomes and real world data (RWD) analysis to quantify cost-effectiveness, budget impact, quality of life and treatment outcomes. By producing rigorous, decision-relevant evidence, HEOR helps biopharmaceutical companies strengthen pricing strategy, support global submissions and communicate a clear, defensible value story in complex healthcare markets.
Real world evidence (RWE) refers to insights about clinical practice and patient outcomes derived from real world data (RWD) sources such as claims, electronic health records, registries and pragmatic studies. It describes findings generated outside traditional randomized controlled trials.
Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) is a scientific discipline that evaluates the clinical, economic and humanistic value of healthcare interventions to inform decision-making across the product lifecycle. HEOR both uses and generates RWE. It draws on clinical information and RWD as foundational inputs into models and analyses, and it produces economic and outcomes analyses that inform reimbursement and access decisions. In short, RWE describes insights derived from RWD, while HEOR applies and produces that data-driven analysis to quantify value and support sponsor, payer and HTA decision-making.
At Syneos Health, post-marketing safety is supported through an integrated approach that connects HEOR, real-world evidence (RWE) and pharmacovigilance. HEOR and safety surveillance are closely aligned: both rely on real-world data (RWD) to understand how therapies perform in routine clinical practice beyond controlled trials. Our epidemiology and biostatistics teams analyze claims, electronic health records and registries to identify safety signals, quantify risk across broader populations and evaluate long-term or rare adverse events, placing safety findings in the context of treatment patterns, comorbidities and real-world outcomes.
These analytical capabilities are complemented by our dedicated drug safety and pharmacovigilance organization, which manages ongoing safety monitoring, case processing, signal detection and regulatory reporting. Together, this creates a continuous, post-approval evidence framework that supports regulatory commitments while also informing payer decisions and lifecycle strategy, which ensures safety insights are both scientifically rigorous and decision-ready.
At Syneos Health, we support real world evidence (RWE) programs through an integrated model that connects study design, data generation and advanced analytics across the full product lifecycle. We help sponsors shape clinical development strategies that identify evidence gaps early, embed real-world and safety-relevant endpoints into Phase II–IV studies and align data generation to regulatory, payer and HTA expectations.
Because our capabilities are embedded across Consulting, Clinical Development and Commercial Delivery, we connect evidence generation directly to value demonstration—helping biopharma organizations come to market with a stronger, more cohesive value story that maximizes pricing, reimbursement and overall commercial potential.
Yes. Syneos Health provides fully integrated HEOR, real world evidence and market access services to support biopharma launches at global scale. We help sponsors develop integrated evidence plans that shape clinical development strategies from the outset, ensuring data generation aligns to regulatory, payer and HTA expectations and supports a strong, differentiated value story at launch.
With capabilities embedded across Consulting, Clinical Development and Commercial Delivery, we connect evidence generation, safety and real-world insights to value demonstration, translating findings into value dossiers, payer strategy and field engagement across global markets. This integrated, lifecycle approach ensures biopharma organizations come to market with credible, decision-ready evidence that maximizes pricing, reimbursement and long-term commercial potential.
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