Session (CTI)

ISSUE: The European Union (EU) introduced the Joint Clinical Assessment (JCA) system, a coordinated approach to comparative clinical assessment, while preserving national authority over pricing and reimbursement. Since the JCA is procedurally embedded, its methodological principles may influence HTA systems in Asia beyond EU. Although the Asian HTA agencies are unlikely to replicate the JCA, its approach is influential so that selective methodological convergence may be plausible in Asia. Therefore, it will be important to discuss the feasibility of country-level adaptation of JCA-aligned system, regarding the wide spectrum such as HTA maturity, data availability, different policies in Asian HTA. OVERVIEW: The moderator, Isao Kamae, opens the session and provides an overview of the session’s objectives and the importance of cross-border policy learning in Asia, suggesting selected key JCA elements as being transferable to Asia such as structured Population, Intervention, Comparator, and Outcomes (PICO) framing, comparator selection anchored in clinical practice, prioritization of patient-relevant outcomes, and explicit characterization of uncertainty framing(5 min). Hong Li will present an overview of the JCA in EU, addressing the relevant context of current HTA systems in China, Taiwan and Singapore regarding the selected key elements(15 min). Makoto Kobayashi and Jeonghoon Ahn presents the country-specific issues to adopt the JCA elements in Japan and Korea, respectively (10 min for each). Subsequently, the panel will engage in a discussion to compare the divergence and convergence in Asian HTA related to JCA, taking the questions from the audience (20 min). The focus is not a review of Asian HTA systems, but discussions on how the expectations for comparative effectiveness evidence described by the JCA in EU may diffuse across jurisdictions in Asia, which will be beneficial for any participants in government, industry and academia.