Health Technology Assessment (HTA)
What is a Health Technology Assessment procedure?
Health Technology Assessment is the systematic evaluation of properties, effects, and impacts related to the use of new health technologies (drugs and medical devices), that compiles scientific evidence to support decision-making on price & reimbursement at national level.
What is new in the framework of Health Technology Assessments?
So far, every time a new health technology or drug comes in, each EU Member State has its own process to assess this new product and decide whether to reimburse it or not – and until which amount. This has amounted to discrepancies and lack of harmonisation on the clinical assessments of new drugs, and delayed fast and equal access to drugs to many patients in the EU region.
From January 2025, the new EU regulation on HTA – Regulation (EU) 2021/2282) – imposes that all new childhood drugs or new indications of drugs targeting childhood cancer will have to be jointly assessed by all EU national health technology authorities with the input of patients, clinicians, health experts and pharmaceutical companies.
Why is it important for our community of patients to get involved?
The input of patients – being it survivors or parents with lived experience on childhood cancer – will be mandatory in the assessment of a new drug or indication as of January 2025, that is why it is crucial to train patient experts that will voice the concerns, specificities and experiences of our community.
CCI Europe is part of the Commission’s stakeholder network on HTA and is preparing the ground for this new methodology starting as of January 2025. We are creating a patient focus group and count on our patients community to represent the unmet needs of young patients with cancer and help improve the quality of drugs assessments. Patients will provide assessments on their individual capacity, however CCI Europe is tasked with training and identifying patient experts that will be ready to act upon request of the Commission. Let us know if you are interested in joining the training.
Who can take part in the new Health Technology Assessments?
Any survivor or parent with lived experience on childhood/young adult cancer can join our focus group and be a candidate for future Health Technology Assessments processes targeting drugs or new indications for our community. You do not need to have previous experience on HTA processes. Training and sharing of expertise/best pratices on HTA assessments will be provided to all patient experts.
