Is there a common European consensus to reward healthcare innovation in HTAs?
There is no common European consensus on how to reward healthcare innovation. Different HTA mechanisms to evaluate clinical and/or cost-effectiveness are used in a majority of European Union member states, at all times separate from regulatory product registrations. Unfortunately, in a variety of healthcare systems cost-effectiveness or cost-utility models with a limited systematic review of clinical data are presented as HTA and “pretend” to have the statute of a holistic evaluation of technologies when they are not. Such HTA evaluations can have the impact of punishing research-intensive biotech SMEs and also threatening patient access by possible misuse as a tool of cost-containment/rationing policies in healthcare.