Time from drug approval to reimbursement longer in U.S. than some european countries

Time from approval to reimbursement of new drugs varies between countries and is shortest in Switzerland and Germany, both of which include health technology assessment decisions that are not used in the United States, according to a study published online Sept. 3 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Camille E.G. Glaus, J.D., from the University of Zurich, and colleagues examined time from approval to reimbursement of new drugs in the United States and European countries. New drugs approved in the United States, the European Union, England, and Switzerland between Jan. 1, 2011, and Dec. 31, 2022, were identified, and reimbursement status and dates were extracted as of Dec. 31, 2023.

The study included 290 drugs approved by all regulatory bodies. The researchers found that the median time from approval to reimbursement was 5.8, 7.4, 9.2, 12.9, and 17.7 months in Switzerland, Germany, the United States, France, and England, respectively. France had the highest reimbursement rate one month after approval (25.9 percent), followed by Switzerland and England (9.7 and 0.7 percent, respectively); at one month, the United States and Germany had no drugs reimbursed. Germany, the United States, and Switzerland had the highest reimbursement rates of 74.3, 70.7, and 62.8 percent, respectively, at one year after approval; in England and France, the rates were 37.1 and 49.0 percent, respectively.

“Our findings suggest that incorporation of a health technology assessment system and drug negotiation process in the United States would not necessarily result in longer time until reimbursement,” the authors write.

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