CONTACT
Gwen Gordon
Phone: (202) 589-1770
ggordon@personalizedmedicinecoalition.org

Washington, DC (October 13, 2011) – The Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) today released a white paper titled “Advancing Access to Personalized Medicine: A Comparative Assessment of European Reimbursement Systems” that evaluates and rates the payment, coding and evidence systems for personalized medicine products in Europe.  Of the ten European countries included in the landscape analysis, Germany, the United Kingdom and France rated highest and Norway, Finland and the Netherlands rated lowest.  The paper also proposes reforms that would improve access to personalized medicine by modernizing coding systems, developing new reimbursement processes, and clarifying evidence requirements needed to bring products to market. 

“Companies developing innovative personalized medicine products in Europe face similar challenges to innovators in the United States; regulatory systems on both continents are not well-positioned to evaluate personalized medicine products nor are reimbursement systems configured to provide companies with a predictable, value-based return on their investments,” said Edward Abrahams, PMC President.

The white paper identifies country-level reimbursement factors that can support or inhibit investment in and access to personalized medicine technologies.  It recommends best practices that could improve reimbursement systems and ultimately bring more personalized medicine products to the market in Europe. 

"For personalized medicine to reach its full potential, policies across Europe need to be better aligned.  Health systems must define clear evidence requirements and create reimbursement pathways for combination products. The fragmented system whereby regulatory decisions are made by the entire European Union, but reimbursement, coding and pricing are determined by individual countries compounds the problem," said the report’s author, Susan Garfield, Vice President of Bridgehead International.

Countries were rated based upon eight criteria, including value-based pricing opportunities for diagnostics, coding specificity requirements, health technology assessment processes and national funding for personalized medicine research, among others. 

The white paper was released at the Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s Molecular Diagnostics Summit Europe in Hannover, Germany and is available for download here.

About the Personalized Medicine Coalition
The Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC), representing scientists, patients, providers and payers, promotes the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts, services and products to benefit patients and the health system.  For more information on the Personalized Medicine Coalition, please visit www.PersonalizedMedicineCoalition.org.