Reimbursement Challenges in Europe for Innovative Therapies

The thinking about the role of health care systems has been evolving over the last ten years such that there is more recognition of the importance of healthy populations on overall wealth and security [1]. At the European level and in WHO studies have shown that the positive return on investment in health systems is between 50% and 250% [2]. At the same time with the exploding advances in understanding how the body works, innovative therapies are proliferating at an ever so rapid pace [3]. What these innovations have in common that was not the case in the past is that they are more focused. Their patient populations are smaller. They are more efficient. That is to say those innovations a generation ago were targeting large populations (Block Buster drugs) with diseases for which we had a significant understanding at that time. Today as scientific understanding is digging deeper into the chemistry of the body, the challenges for health care systems have focused on the rising costs and limited budgets.