Standardization of European HTA bodies is inevitable: EFPIA head

The director general of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) has argued in favor of homogenizing European health technology assessment (HTA) bodies and regulation.

Richard Bergström, speaking to Paul Simms, chairman of eyeforpharma, said it would be the only way for market access to make a step improvement, and that all stakeholders, not just pharma companies, need to invest in larger, more wide-ranging data collection and analysis.

Mr Bergström said: “You better make sure you spend wisely, because if you are going to pour in billions into real world data systems, they need to deliver. They must be sustainable and sustained over time, because we can't, for each individual, country and product go in and do a bolt-on data capture and then after one year close it down. As an industry, we can't have a Slovenian real world data system; we can't have a separate one for Austria, etc. We need to build a pan-European standardized model and for that to happen you need to have an agreement.”