OBJECTIVES: Health Technology Assessment (HTA) bodies evaluate the clinical and/or economic impact of healthcare technologies to inform reimbursement policies. As global healthcare expenditure grows, many countries are instituting or expanding the roles of HTA to achieve more affordable and equitable healthcare. The National Committee for Health Technology Incorporation (CONITEC) is the national HTA in Brazil established 2011. In Argentina, plans to establish an official national HTA agency (Agency for Evaluation of Health Technologies; AGNET) have not yet been implemented; however, the Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS, established 2003) issues HTA reports utilized by the interim national HTA agency (National Health Technology Assessment Commission; CONETEC). This research evaluates HTA reports by CONITEC and IECS.

METHODS: CONITEC and IECS HTA reports were identified from contitec.gov.br and www.iecs.org.ar (01/01/2018-31/12/2020) and key information extracted.

RESULTS: 184 CONITEC HTA reports were identified (70 in 2018, 57 2019, and 56 2020). 47% of drug HTA report outcomes were to include in the Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS, Brazil’s publicly funded national healthcare system), 39% were not to be incorporated into the SUS, 9% were to expand the use of a medicine, 4% to not expand the use, and 4% were excluded/removed. 294 IECS reports were identified (125 in 2018, 70 in 2019, and 99 in 2020). 67% were HTA reports and 33% were individual patient requests. The most common indications assessed were in oncology (19%) and neurology (11%).

CONCLUSIONS: CONITEC and IECS represent HTA bodies in two of the biggest Latin American pharmaceutical markets, both issuing an average of over 80 reports per year. CONITEC have been particularly impactful in Brazil, not recommending reimbursement of almost 40% of technologies assessed. The implementation of the new HTA body AGNET in Argentina and its impact on national access for medicines will be an important focus for future research.