OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to gain further insight into the approval, usage, and reimbursement of outpatient drugs introduced in the Netherlands between 2017 and 2021.

METHODS: Data on the usage and reimbursement of outpatient drugs in the Netherlands were obtained from the publicly available GIP open data, a national database that includes prescriptions by general practitioners and specialists. The database covers drug use between 2000 and 2021 for approximately 17.1 million insured individuals in the Netherlands, representing 98% coverage. For this analysis, only drugs that were first reimbursed during the last five years of available data (2017-2021) were included. Public assessment reports were obtained from Zorginstituut Nederland, the Dutch Health Technology Assessment (HTA) body. The analysis was conducted on June 26, 2023.

RESULTS: A total of 59 new drugs were introduced and reimbursed between 2017 and 2021, with a cumulative budget impact of €775 million. Zorginstituut Nederland assessed the majority (81%) of these drugs. Half of the assessed drugs (50%) were reimbursed through Annex 1A of the Dutch reimbursement system, which imposes a reimbursement limit based on already reimbursed drugs. Budget impact analyses were published for 14 drugs (29%) as part of the HTA assessment. A comparison between the estimated and the actual budget impact suggests that the budget impact of new outpatient drugs is generally overestimated during the HTA assessment.

CONCLUSIONS: This secondary data analysis of HTA assessments, usage, and reimbursement of newly introduced outpatient drugs in the Netherlands from 2017 to 2021 revealed that 59 drugs were reimbursed during this five-year period. Approximately half of these drugs are subject to a reimbursement limit under the Annex 1A procedure of the Dutch reimbursement system. The estimated budget impact at the time of HTA assessment tends to overestimate the actual reimbursed budget.