OBJECTIVES:: To identify the degree of agreement amongst four health technology assessment agencies regarding pharmacological treatment for three rheumatic conditions: rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, in the past five years.

METHODS:: We conducted a systematic and structured search on the websites of National Commission for Health Technologies Incorporation (CONITEC) – Brazil, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – United Kingdom, Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) – Canada via Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) and Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) – Australia. Key words were the names of the conditions. Only reports published in the last five years were considered. Inclusion criterion was at least 2 agencies having assessed the same technology and indications as CONITEC. For data extraction, only the final recommendation about each drug was recorded. Degree of agreement between agencies was determined using the percentage of agreement. We used Microsoft Excel for analysis.

RESULTS:: Our search yielded 74 recommendations, from which 60 results were included in this analysis. CONITEC evaluated 14 biological medicinal products indicated for the three diseases, resulting in 9 positive recommendations (64%). Regarding rheumatoid arthritis, CONITEC recommended all biological medicinal products considered. NICE agreed with CONITEC in 88% about this condition. As for CADTH and PBAC, their percentage of agreement was 11% and 33%. CONITEC did not recommed any of the four biological medicinal products considered for psoriasis. Contrary to NICE and CADTH, which cover 100% of said medications, and PBAC, accounting for 75%. Due to the lack of biological medicinal products evaluated, it was not possible to establish degree of agreement for psoriatic arthritis.

CONCLUSIONS:: Comparing results from different health technology assessment agencies is not only vital to the HTA in Brazil, but also criterion evaluated in public and private health systems.