Starting in December 2022, the HORIZON-funded project ASCERTAIN (Affordability and Sustainability improvements through new pricing, Cost- Effectiveness and Reimbursement models to Appraise innovative health technologies) will address the need of patients, physicians, payers, regulators, and manufacturers to improve the affordability and accessibility to innovative health technologies (including pharmaceuticals) in Europe. Affording newly approved innovative health technologies (IHTs) is challenging in many health systems.
The Erasmus University Rotterdam has worked alongside nine consortium partners: Comenius University Bratislava, Gesundheit Österreich GmbH, University of Oslo, Association Internationale de la Mutualité (AIM), Nuromedia GmbH, European Hematology Association (EHA), Myeloma Patients Europe (MPE), Chino SRL and OptiMedis.
Prof. Carin Uyl-de Groot from Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management and ASCERTAIN project coordinator states: “Our mission is to make high-cost drugs and technologies more and faster access in Europe. The project gives us the opportunity to work on it.”
Tomáš Tesař from the Comenius University Bratislava adds: “Our goal is to develop a sustainable solution. We are happy to contribute our expertise in the field of medical devices and reimbursement”.
Kate Morgan from Myeloma Patients Europe says: “It is important for us to identify patients’ needs and preferences and to include their perspective when developing new models. Also, there are huge inequalities in medicines access across Europe, so we are happy to contribute to a project exploring innovative pricing and reimbursements models and ways of addressing this issue”
ASCERTAIN will develop open-access, easy-to-use, policy-supporting tools, including:
- Pricing models
- Value assessment models
- Reimbursement models
These models will be adaptable to country-specific conditions and patient preferences. These tools will improve transparency and accountability of decision-making, reduce uncertainty for all stakeholders, reward innovation in areas of high unmet need, accelerate access for patients, and support long-term planning and sustainability. Further, these tools will be developed, tested, and validated for three use cases, including precision cancer medicine, cell- and gene therapy, and medical devices or in vitro diagnostics.
The ASCERTAIN project starts in December 2022 and ends in November 2026. It receives funding from the Horizon Europe Framework Programme under grant agreement No 101094938.
Click here to read the press release.
Click here to read more about HORIZON Europe and the other projects in which MPE participates.
