title: Health technology assessment in the Balkans: opportunities for a balanced drug assessment system.
abstract: Countries in the Balkan region use pharmaco-economic data for decisions about the inclusion of new pharmaceuticals into their positive drug lists, but no predefined frameworks are used and resources for health technology assessment (HTA) are limited. The goal of this analysis is to investigate into possible development directions for the HTA system in the region, and provide some practical recommendations for a sustainable model. For this purpose, the main factors currently influencing HTA in Balkan countries are briefly presented, and possible development strategies are compared. A resource-saving balanced assessment approach is proposed. It is aligned with available resources and capabilities, and helps access to new pharmaceuticals while ensuring the transparency of decision-making processes and the stability of the pharmaceutical budget.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Management, Corvinus University of Budapest , Budapest , Hungary.
authors.forename: Dávid
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dankó
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University of Sofia , Sofia , Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Guenka
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Petrova
keywords: Balkan region; HTA; pricing of medicines; reimbursement of medicines