Background: The benefit of pharmaceutical innovation manifests when patients access treatment. Following regulatory approval in Europe and Canada, reimbursement decisions depend on health technology assessments (HTAs), which can be prolonged. To quantify the impact of delays on patients, we evaluated market access timelines for olaparib, osimertinib, durvalumab, acalabrutinib, and trastuzumab deruxtecan across six high-income countries with established HTA systems (Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain). Methods: Time to access was from regulatory approval to reimbursement. Survival benefit was median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) assessed versus the comparator at approval and the latest data cut-off. The number of eligible patients per year multiplied by the years to patient access and survival benefit reflects the lost survival benefit. Results: Efficacy benefits observed at approval continued to the latest data cut-offs. The mean time to patient access was 18 months. Although this varied by country and treatment, with England and Germany typically being the fastest and France and Spain the slowest, timelines often exceeded the 180-day EU target despite identical evidence used in HTA submissions. This resulted in an estimated mean of 2836 patients being unable to access treatment and 3391 OS-derived and 2739 PFS-derived life-years lost. Conclusions: Access processes must evolve to ensure the timely realization of new medicines’ benefits.
Crean et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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