OBJECTIVES: EUnetHTA was established in 2005 to create an effective and sustainable network for Health Technology Assessment (HTA) across Europe. EUnetHTA Joint Assessments (JAs) are HTAs produced together by at least four different national European HTA bodies. This research aims to evaluate whether drugs evaluated under EUnetHTA JAs have received better/faster outcomes by participating national European HTA bodies.

METHODS: Publically available information on EUnetHTA JAs for individual drugs were identified and the associated appraisal by NICE, SMC, G-BA, TLV, and HAS (to 12/06/2018).

RESULTS: Seven EUnetHTA JAs were identified, 5/7 for oncology indications and 2/7 were orphan drugs. HAS were involved in 7/7, SMC in 4/7, NICE in 2/7, TLV in 2/7, and G-BA in 1/7. Amongst completed national appraisals, NICE provided positive outcomes (defined as “recommended” or “conditional”) for 2/4 JAs assessed, compared with 4/4 by SMC ( “accepted” or “restricted”), 1/3 by G-BA (any level of additional benefit), 3/3 by TLV ( “recommended“ or “recommended with restrictions”) and 0/5 by HAS (ASMR I-III). For the 11 completed national appraisals where the appraising HTA was also involved in the corresponding EUnetHTA JA, 55% (6/11) resulted in a positive outcome after a mean delay of 241 days post EC-approval. For the eight completed national appraisals where the appraising HTA was not involved in the corresponding EUnetHTA JA, the recommendation rate was 50% (4/8) after a mean delay of 261 days post EC-approval.

CONCLUSIONS: To date, involvement in EUnetHTA JAs is not correlated with either faster reimbursement or higher rates of positive outcomes by participating HTA bodies. Nevertheless, further moves towards pan-European HTA are ongoing. In February 2018, the EC put forward detailed plans for greater European HTA harmonization by 2020. However, aligning the divergent national HTA methodologies and decision-making criteria may represent a very challenging hurdle to overcome.