French Health Technology Assessment of Antineoplastic Drugs Indicated in ă the Treatment of Solid Tumours: Perspective for Future Trends

France is one of the European countries that spend the most on oncology ă drugs. To keep pharmaceutical expenditure under control, Health ă Authorities highly scrutinize market access of costly medicines. ă To assess current and future trends in French health technology ă assessment (HTA) of antineoplastic drugs indicated in the treatment of ă solid tumours. ă A review of the SMR and ASMR drivers of the Transparency Committee (CT) ă opinions issued for antineoplastic drugs indicated in the treatment of ă solid tumours and approved between 2009 and 2014 was performed to assess ă current trends in French health technology assessment (HTA), ă complemented by an expert board consultation to capture the critical ă issues on the future of antineoplastic drugs HTA. ă Thirty-one drugs indicated for the treatment of solid tumours were ă identified (77 % targeted therapies). Initial CT assessments were ă available for 26 drugs. Four key items in the CT assessment were ă identified: 1) Clinical trial methodology; 2) Acceptance of ă progression-free survival (PFS) as a valuable endpoint; 3) ă Transferability of clinical trials in clinical practice; 4) ă Unpredictability of CT decisions. Experts raised the important ă development of personalised medicines in oncology and key challenges for ă oncology products to generate information expected from HTA perspective. ă The French system remains committed to its values and philosophy (access ă of all innovations for everybody) which are threatened by the increasing ă launch of innovative therapies and budget constraint. Both HTA decision ă framework evolution and revision of the current pricing process should ă be considered in France to cope with these new challenges.