Health Technology Assessment and patients' rights: Assess versus access?

Patients’ organisations call for an assessment of the clinical added value of orphan drugs at the time of the marketing authorisation evaluation. The European Commission has commissioned Ernst & Young to explore the feasibility of a new Committee at the European Medicines Agency1. A new drug candidate faces a number of hurdles on its journey to reach the patient. Regulators are the first, and right after are the Health Technology Agencies and payers. Things can turn sour, from a political point of view, when that second scenario happens, when the regulators say “yes this drug is safe and effective” and the payers say “Oh well but we won’t reimburse it”. Regulators and health technology assessment experts have recently started to harmonise their respective methodologies to avoid some degree of redundancy and contradictions in their respective opinions. Patients are participating in the decision making at the European Medicines Agency, and work closely with some national regulatory agencies. More systematic involvement with health technology assessment agencies is only beginning. This paper illustrates some of the issues patients are discussing with health technology assessment bodies.