Regard de la Haute Autorité de Santé sur les avancées thérapeutiques médicamenteuses en 2005 et 2006

The French National Authority for Health (HAS) assesses the actual benefit provided by medicinal products within a defined legal framework. It provides an independent scientific opinion. It aims to ensure equity, taking into account a variety of points of view as a result of close collaboration with health professionals. In 2005-2006, the mean time to process requests by the Transparency Committee was 100 days (median 77 days) and faster than in previous years. Over 30% of new medicinal products undergoing a first assessment or an assessment for an extension to indications were deemed to provide added value. This added value was marked for 25% of the products (i.e. an improvement in actual benefit (“ASMR”) of I to III). Many of these products were orphan drugs and/or biotechnology products.