Working with HTAs: It ’s Your Move

In June last year, the heads of European health technology assessment (HTA) bodies came together at a meeting facilitated by EUnetHTA (European Network for Health Technology Assessment) and the European Commission ’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety.A key focus of the event was the creation of earlier and more engaging dialogue between pharma and HTA bodies. This is not surprising. As critical gatekeepers for new medicine seeking access to national markets, HTAs are playing central roles in moves to tighten control over drug spending across Europe. As part of this, bodies are going further than ever before to understand the budgetary impact of new products, which requires greater cooperation with the companies developing them.So, with a renewed spirit of openness and collaboration permeating access discussions, are both sides actually listening to one other ’s point of view? “We’ve had a pretty good experience over the last year as a result of early dialogue,” says Niklas Hedberg, chair of EUnetHTA’s executive board.“We’ve seen evidence of pharma listening more closely to the calls from HTAs, to the point where we can now see the mutual benefits for both sides from interaction.”Stefan Holmstrom, Astellas ’ Global Head of HTA strategy, has also noticed a change, citing a technical meeting between EUnetHTA and EFPIA in Paris in December. “[It was] a good experience; the meeting was extremely collaborative and open with everyone asking questio...
Source: EyeForPharma - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news