On Thursday 15 September 2022, the Heads of HTA Agencies Group came together for their third face-to-face meeting since the group evolved into a standalone independent body. The meeting was hosted by the Italian Ministry of Health and the Italian National Agency for Regional Healthcare Services (Agenas) in Rome, Italy.
The meeting featured a number of key strategic topics including:
- HTA as part of joint procurement activities. The European healthcare landscape is an emerging and ever-changing field and as part of this, HAG members discussed the important role of HTA in developing EU joint procurement activities. As part of this discussion, the HAG has released a statement setting out their position. The statement stresses the need for a Joint Clinical Assessment (JCA) to form the basis of any Union-level joint procurement activity. Where a JCA is not available, any joint procurement decision should be based on a clinical assessment grounded in robust clinical evidence. In all cases, HTA must rest on the competence and experience of established HTA bodies. Click here to view the statement in full.
- The HTA Regulation (HTAR). The European Commission (DG SANTE) provided an update on the status of the HTAR and the setting up of the HTA Coordination Group (CG). This was followed by a discussion amongst members on the development of the Rules of Procedure for the CG as well as Member State-EC roles and responsibilities.
- The setup of working groups. Members of the HAG agreed to setup a number of key working groups on communication, capacity building and roles and responsibilities.
Members of the HAG also admitted State Institute for Drug Control (SUKL, Czech Republic), Danish Medicines Agency (DKMA, Denmark) and the National Institute for Value and Technologies in Healthcare (NIHO, Slovakia) to the group.
Following the adoption of a strategy on the inclusion of new members in March 2022, the new members mean that the HAG has added an additional six members in only six months, bringing the total number of agencies represented to 26, spanning 17 countries.
The next HAG meeting will take place in Lisbon, Portugal in January 2023.
For more information about the HAG, including its history and objectives, click here.
