About us
The MEDICINE EVALUATION COMMITTEE (MEDEV) was established in 1998 by representatives of the social health insurance organisations in Austria, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Switzerland to facilitate informed discussions and exchanges on pharmaceutical policy developments in the EU.
The European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP) in Brussels was commissioned with the role of coordinating the activities of the Committee.
MEDEV is a network of 22 national authorities from 18 Member States and Norway bringing together all the relevant institutions (national HTA agencies and social health insurers-payers) responsible for the assessment, pricing and reimbursement of medicines in Europe. MEDEV forum includes all those involved in the decision-making processes turning access to medicines into a reality for patients across Europe.
The overarching mission of MEDEV is to further the sustainable provision of medicines to patients who are publicly insured.
Cooperation & Exchange
MEDEV provides an informal platform for exchanges between national bodies responsible for the assessment, pricing and reimbursement of medicines to support them in their role at national level. This includes:
- Rapid assessments of (new) medicinal products of common interest
- Exchanges on ongoing and planned assessments for reimbursement, methodologies and pharmaceutical policy
- Review of EU-level activities impacting on national assessment, pricing and reimbursement
- Timely analyses of drug related trends and innovations, and political and legal initiatives of the European Institutions
Expertise
MEDEV provides an informal platform for consultation at EU level, offering specific expertise in the following areas:
- Pricing & reimbursement Pharmaceutical
- Policy advice & analysis
- Access to Medicines e.g. MoCA (Mechanism of Coordinated Access to Orphan Medicinal Products) .
Collaboration
MEDEV collaborates closely with the following organisations and networks:
- European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP)
- European Network on Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA)
- European Medicines Agency (EMA)
- European Commission (EC)
- European Parliament (EP)
- World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe
- Piperska Group
Reflections on national strategies for new medicines
The accelerated pace of technological developments, increasingly complex therapies and the combination of different technologies is changing regulatory practice, influencing HTA as well as pricing and reimbursement.
Innovative medicines targeting a (high) unmet-medical-need often demand marketing authorisation through an expedited procedure based on much less robust evidence, leading to a higher uncertainty of effectiveness and safety.
In this changing environment, payers must still continue to ensure that decisions on access to safe and effective therapies are based on sufficient evidence and that prices reflect the actual added benefit to patients (and/or health systems). Thus, new products receiving marketing authorisation by way of expedited procedures present a challenge to current practices.
This paper is a reflection of how payer organisations in close cooperation with regulators, HTA, health professionals, patient organisations and marketing authorisation holders can implement changes to deal with these challenges.
To view the full reflection paper, click on the following link.