title: Relative effectiveness assessments of oncology medicines for pricing and reimbursement decisions in European countries.
abstract: There is a debate on the added clinical value of new, expensive, anticancer treatments. Among European decision makers, the relevance of commonly used end points in trials, especially overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and quality of life (QoL), varies, leading to the available evidence being valued differently. This research studies the extent to which the value of end points for cancer medicines differs among European decision makers.
  
  
  
  We compared guidelines and relative effectiveness assessments (REAs) of medicines for pricing or reimbursement decisions in England, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, and Scotland. Anticancer medicines that received marketing authorization in Europe between 2011 and 2013 with at least four available national REAs were evaluated. A total of 79 REAs were included.
  
  
  
  Health technology assessment (HTA) guidelines indicate a preference for clinically and patient relevant end points such as OS and QoL above surrogate end points. Most guidelines do not specify whether PFS is considered a surrogate or patient-relevant end point. The number of REAs included per jurisdiction varied between 7 (The Netherlands) and 18 (Germany). OS data were included in all REAs and were the preferred end point by HTA agencies, but these data were not always mature or robust. QoL data are included in only 54% of the REAs, with a limited impact on the recommendations. PFS data are included in 70% of the REAs, but the extent to which HTA agencies find PFS relevant varies.
  
  
  
  European decision-making on relative effectiveness of anticancer medicines is affected by a gap in requested versus available clinical evidence, mainly because the regulator is willing to accept some degree of clinical uncertainty. A multi-stakeholder debate would be essential to align concrete robust evidence requirements in oncology and a collectively shared definition for relevant clinical benefit, which will benefit patients and society in general.
authors.affiliation: National Health Care Institute, Diemen, The Netherlands Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands skleijnen@zinl.nl.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kleijnen
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands Center for Innovation in Regulatory Science, London, UK.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lipska
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Leonardo Alves
authors.affiliation: VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Meijboom
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elsada
authors.affiliation: Department of Drug Assessment, Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vervölgyi
authors.affiliation: Medicines Evaluation Department, Haute Autorité de santé, Paris, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: d'Andon
authors.affiliation: NHS Lothian and Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Timoney
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: H G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Leufkens
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Boer
authors.affiliation: National Health Care Institute, Diemen, The Netherlands Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Goettsch
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003657:Decision Making; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004739:England; D005060:Europe; D005602:France; D005858:Germany; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology; D009426:Netherlands; D011788:Quality of Life; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical / Q000191:economics
keywords: antineoplastic agents; clinical oncology; comparative effectiveness; health technology assessment; reimbursement