Health technology assessment for cancer medicines across the G7 countries and Oceania: an international, cross-sectional study

The increasing costs of medicines and their implications for patients, physicians and the health system

“…A recent study of cancer drug reimbursement decisions by eight countries found that Germany reimbursed 83% of marginally beneficial cancer medicines, followed by Japan (67%), France (50%), Italy (39%) and Australia/England (17%). 26 Overall, 37% of marginally beneficial medicine-indication pairs were recommended for reimbursement or reimbursed in one of these countries. These major variations existed despite the countries being economically similar and having overlapping health technology assessment decision criteria.…”

Surrogate endpoints for HTA decisions of breast cancer drugs: utility and pitfalls

“…HTA offers a second layer of filter after regulatory approval to ensure that the scarce resources are used to improve access to high value cancer drugs, and limit exposure to low-value drugs. Of the several parameters that HTA agencies consider, therapeutic benefit and cost-effectiveness are the most common [3]. Although the HTA agencies may or may not explicitly consider the validity of surrogate endpoints, the question of whether it is in the best interest of the healthcare system to publicly pay for a drug that doesn't improve OS or QOL is a decision that challenges most HTA systems in the world.…”

“…HTA assessments go beyond the evaluation of efficacy and safety alone and attempt to guide whether the drugs should be funded under public drug funding programs. These assessments usually include considerations of magnitudes of benefit, quality of evidence, budget impact, cost-effectiveness, and improvement over available therapies [3].…”

Availability and Coverage of New Drugs in 6 High-Income Countries With Health Technology Assessment Bodies

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Most high-income countries except the US rely on health technology assessment (HTA) to ensure that prices paid for new medicines reflect the value they provide. 1,2 Health technology assessment bodies assess the relative clinical or economic impact of new drugs to guide pricing and coverage decisions. These assessments usually occur after marketing authorization by a medicines regulatory body (eg, European Medicines Agency), and patients may have little or no access to therapies not assessed favorably by HTA bodies.As Medicare considers using comparative effectiveness data to negotiate drug prices, examining HTA decisions abroad can inform US policymakers about how HTA affects the availability and coverage of new medicines.

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“…Most high-income countries except the US rely on health technology assessment (HTA) to ensure that prices paid for new medicines reflect the value they provide . Health technology assessment bodies assess the relative clinical or economic impact of new drugs to guide pricing and coverage decisions.…”