EU says new health technology assessment body will help boost personalised medicines

Published: 20-Nov-2013

The body should be up and running by January 2014


A detailed European Commission working paper has welcomed the imminent creation of a European Union (EU) network of health technology assessment (HTA) experts, hoping it will encourage changes in such techniques to promote the development of personalised medicines.

The network was authorised by EU directive 2011/24/EU on patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare, and should be up and running by the New Year.

The Commission report said a successful uptake of personalised medicines 'requires a robust health technology assessment' and that the 'forthcoming establishment of a permanent, HTA network at European level will allow work models to be established for joint assessments of new health technologies.

The information generated can be reused at national level, thereby reducing duplication of work between member states.'

The report argued: 'The benefits of personalised medicines are expected to offset their costs by efficiency gains. Rigorous evaluation offers the possibility to demonstrate the effectiveness of medical products and medical devices in comparison with other therapies.'

'This would help overcome potential policy challenges to personalised medicines, such as there being 'variable policies in EU as regards pricing and reimbursement'.

The report also hailed the oncoming €70bn Horizon 2020 EU research programme, which should start on 1 January 2014 and last until 2020. It will include calls for personalised medicine research funding proposals, and the report highlighted likely priority spending areas. These included facilitating interaction between different disciplines from basic to clinical research on personalised medicines, creating appropriate interfaces for collaboration and discussion. Another would be developing common standards for this pharma research area, for example on data collection and linking clinical data with molecular profiles. Also, finding new approaches for identifying, qualifying and clinically validating biomarkers would attract funds.

'The development of personalised medicine through the use of -omics technologies offers new opportunities for the treatment of patients in the European Union,' it added.

You may also like