OBJECTIVES: In France, the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) is in charge of the healthcare products assessment. For more than 10 years, in addition of the clinical assessment, economics studies are required by the HAS for the national evaluation of innovative healthcare products. For these products, HAS publishes transparency opinion and economic opinion based on clinical dossier and cost-effectiveness model (and budget impact model), respectively.

This survey analyses the use of these HAS opinions by hospital pharmacists in France, in particular in the context of drugs’ referencing in hospitals.

METHODS: This study was based on an electronic questionnaire distributed between December 2022 and February 2023 and shared with hospital pharmacists practicing in France. Results such as percentage of HAS opinions uses, information used from HAS opinions and hospital pharmacists’ needs were described in this study.

RESULTS: In total, 89 pharmacists have responded to the survey. Among this sample, more than 76% use the clinical opinion from the HAS (Transparency dossier) and only 11% use the economic opinion from the HAS (cost-effectiveness analysis) in their practice. They declared to use HAS opinions for drugs’ referencing, to support health professionals’ discussions and/or to argue the choice or adaptation of therapeutic strategies.

CONCLUSIONS: Even if the hospital pharmacists of this survey declared to be interested by economic issues, the economic opinions from the HAS are much less used than transparency opinion. This observation may reflect the difficulty of using national economic opinions by local payers such as hospital pharmacists in the context of healthcare product referencing.