Another important step to shape the European Health Union has been taken. Today, the European Parliament has endorsed the agreement with the EU Council on the Health Technology Assessment (HTA). This new European tool will strengthen the cooperation among member states allowing the setting up of a permanent structured framework to facilitate the joint work on, and uptake of, the HTA. This will also contribute to better access to safe, effective and high quality health technologies.

EP Rapporteur of the regulation and S&D MEP, Tiemo Wölken, said:

“The pandemic has shown us the need for a strong and inclusive European Health Union and as the S&D Group, we have always advocated strengthened cooperation on health issues. Today, with the adoption of the regulation on Health Technology Assessment, we have taken one step further. Reducing the fragmentation of the HTA is an important step to ensure that future health technology assessments are better coordinated within the EU. Ultimately, a European approach to joint clinical assessment will not only combine national strengths, but also provide companies with a predictable and harmonised evaluation process at an EU level. At the same time, it is a milestone to ensure fair, affordable and transparent access to medicines for all EU citizens. We, as the S&D Group, will continue towards an ambitious agenda in health and towards improved access to health technologies and health care.”

S&D coordinator in the public health committee (ENVI), Jytte Guteland, added:

“We need to ensure accessibility to health technologies which are safe, effective and of good quality. The new regulation on HTA will ensure that member states pool their expertise and provide good quality joint clinical assessments of health technologies in a timely manner. With this regulation, we will strengthen the cooperation to contribute to the demand for access to health technologies. This is especially important in light of the current and future challenges where health technologies are increasingly complex, such as in the areas of rare diseases, personal medicine or orphan medicines. We fought for stronger provisions with regards to the uptake of joint clinical assessments and managed to secure safeguards to ensure that future joint assessments cannot be ignored.”