EAA News & Media Posts

Turning from ‘the Pharmacy to the World’ to the ‘HTA Hub of the World’: a winning proposition?

As discussed in the recent BeOne Medicines Symposium during the 2026 World Health Summit, there is an old saying, characterizing Europe as the World’s Pharmacy. Reflecting today’s environment, the facts clearly indicate how dramatically times have changed. Expenditure for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (R&D) in the US is far outpacing Europe, and R&D growth rates in China are far ahead of both, the US and Europe. The recent open letter by 9 Chairmen of European pharmaceutical companies is highlighting the fact that Europe is about to lose the “Pharma Investment Race”. One of the core statements indicates:

‘The message to innovators has been stark: Europe does not value what you do.’

This statement touches the heart of the EU HTA regulation. The regulation points to the relevance of Health Technologies as key innovative sector of the economy in the union (recital 1), the relevance of health technology assessment (HTA) to determine the added value of innovative technologies (recital 2) and the relevance of HTA to promote meaningful innovation (recital 3).

However, steadily losing innovative capacity and at the same time installing burdensome HTA requirements does not seem to be an attractive value proposition neither to patients nor to the European industry that is engaged in fierce global competition. Turning from ‘the Pharmacy to the World’ to the ‘HTA Hub of the World’ is not a winning proposition. Instead, innovation in R&D and HTA have to go hand in hand to regain competitive stance by:

1) Prioritizing the plethora of European PICO (Population/ Intervention/ Comparator/ Outcomes) schemes and providing R&D with guidance regarding a feasible and meaningful clinical data set to be developed.

2) Ensuring appropriately balanced reflection of all three pillars of evidence-based medicine in the process. I.e. allow for consolidated involvement of most knowledgeable patients and clinicians beyond individual capacity.

3) Finally, with the upcoming revision of the regulation European (Co-) assessors should be charged with the task to recognize if a new medicine provides an additional benefit over the current best possible standard of care. For medicines harbouring an additional benefit the EU member states should echo the value recognition and facilitate rapid access for patients.

In the current global environment Europe has two options: either come together or largely disappear. Coming together within the Pharmaceutical Sector requires a slim, meaningful and rapid HTA process to optimize industry R&D spend, identify and recognize added benefit and, finally, facilitate rapid access for medicines harbouring added value to patients and the society.

Topical Collection at the Journal of Market Access and Health Policy on EU HTA:

The European Access Academy (EAA) and the Market Access Society (MAS) are editing a Topical Collection at JMAHP focusing on EU HTA, with Jörg Ruof and Mondher Toumi as guest editors. The goal of the Collection is to generate a comprehensive resource consolidating relevant information and diverse perspectives from various stakeholders and a range of focus topics regarding EU HTA.

Access the Collection HERE directly at the journal or find a list of all articles in this collection HERE.