Unveiling Willingness to Pay for iPSC-Based Retinal Cell therapy through Discrete Choice Experiments

Advanced technologies risk becoming obsolete if not successfully integrated into society. One contributing factor for the societal setback is the absence of procedures for setting appropriate prices for deliverable products, which are essential for creating mutually beneficial scenarios for both supply and demand. Among those product, the therapeutic ap- plication of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, particularly in ophthalmology, holds significant promise for addressing unmet healthcare needs. However, its progress is currently stalled at the social implementation stage due to difficulties in setting an appropri- ate price. Traditional pricing methods, such as cost-based calculations, often underestimate the true value of new medical treatments because of the lack of existing benchmarks for comparison or projected future medical demands for rare diseases. Additionally, cost-benefit methods that reflect Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) are sometimes used for pricing new technologies. However, for the treatment of eye diseases, it is considered more appropriate to set prices that also account for the psychological burden associated with blindness. Using tools from behavioral economics in hypothetical discrete choice experiments, we estimated the willingness to pay (WTP) – reflecting psychological monetary values – for new eye disease treatments among healthy subjects (n = 1,200) and actual patients (n = 50). The estimated WTPs for a scenario that most accurately describes the current therapeutic technology that improves a patient’s vision are more than 15 times the unconditional average annual income in Japan (before tax) among healthy subjects. The point estimates of WTPs from actual patients are even higher, as expected, given their risk of incurable visual impairment. These results indicate a strong demand for the social implementation of iPSC-based retinal cell therapy. Incorporating social demand into drug pricing, as part of patient and public in- volvement in medicine, could encourage healthcare providers to explore innovative therapies and support their sustainable implementation.