On 15 May 2018, European Cancer Patient Coalition met with the EU Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis to exchange views on Health Technology Assessment legislative proposal. In the joint meeting together with eight other civil society organisations, ECPC was represented by Kathi Apostolidis, Vice President and Lydia Makaroff, Director.
European Cancer Patient Coalition welcomed the dialogue with the European Commission and expressed readiness and willingness to work with the European Commission to inform Members of the European Parliament and with together with ECPC member national patient organisations to inform at the national level about this important proposal.
European Cancer Patient Coalition called for a systematic involvement of patient organisations in Health Technology Assessment in the European Union and stressed the need to enforce compulsory participation and uptake of Joint Clinical Assessments for all EU Member States, as the only solution for successful cooperation on HTA. ECPC also highlighted the need for formalisation of patient organisation involvement throughout all activities of Health Technology Assessment at the EU level, as well as in the assessments of non-clinical domains that are conducted at national level.
“If we are not able to establish an effective mechanism to guarantee meaningful patient organisation involvement in Health Technology Assessment at the European level, it will be extremely difficult to implement this process at the national level”, said Kathi Apostolidis, Vice President of the European Cancer Patient Coalition, in a meeting with the Commissioner Andriukaitis. It is essential that the European Union underlines the vital role that patient organisations play in the decision-making process by formalising the participation of patient organisations.
The European Cancer Patient Coalition has also published a draft response to the proposal on future cooperation on health technology assessment 2018/0018 (COD). It is currently open for feedback and input from all the European Cancer Patient Coalition members.
For more information, please contact:
Alex Filicevas
Head of EU Affairs
Read the full Press Release here.
Download the updated ECPC Position Statement (July 2018) on future cooperation on HTA here.