Announcements

Current & archive
Horizon Scanning in Oncology - Fact Sheets
We are pleased to introduce our five new HSO Fact Sheets.
Fact Sheet No. 72 (January 2022)
Enfortumab vedotin (Padcev®) as monotherapy for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer
Fact Sheet No. 73 (January 2022)
Tepotinib (Tepmetko®) as monotherapy for the treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
Fact Sheet No. 74 (January 2022)
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) as monotherapy for the adjuvant treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC)
Fact Sheet Nr. 75 (January 2022)
Lorlatinib (Lorviqua®) as monotherapy for the treatment of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
Fact Sheet No. 76 (January 2022)
Tegafur/gimeracil/oteracil (Teysuno®) for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer
Covid-19: HSS/ Horizon Scanning Living Document (v19 December 2021/January 2022)
The establishment of a HSS/ Horizon Scanning System for Covid19 interventions has the intentions of informing health policy makers at an early stage which interventions (vaccinations and drugs) are currently undergoing clinical trials and to monitor them over the next few months in order to support evidence-based purchasing if necessary. The products are monitored with regard to the status of the clinical studies up to approval and finally evaluated for their benefit and harm.
All work steps are conducted in close international (European) cooperation.
Publications:
- Policy Brief No. 002: http://eprints.aihta.at/1234/
Contact: Claudia Wild
>=12 Month Follow-Up of Patients with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) treated with Spinraza®, Zolgensma® or Combination Therapies
Since 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have approved three drugs for the treatment of SMA. Results of the pivotal trials showed clinically meaningful improvements (MCID) in motor skills in SMA type 1 (especially those with early treatment initiation and ?2 SMN2 copies), as well as a stabilisation of health status in SMA type 2 to 4 patients. In SMA type 1 patients, while motor skills improved, no changes (sometimes even a deterioration) in the need for ventilation and nutritional support could be observed. The present report aims to synthesize the evidence on mid- and long-term (? 12 months) follow-up of the approved drugs as monotherapies or as combination therapies.
Twenty-two observational studies were included for analysing mid- and long-term outcomes. The included studies reported on 840 SMA patients, of which 289 SMA type 1 patients and 521 SMA type 2 to 4 patients were treated with nusinersen, only 12 SMA type 1 patients with onasemnogene abeparvovec and 18 SMA type 1 patients received a combination therapy.
Publication: Policy Brief No. 001, 1. Update: https://eprints.aihta.at/1352
Contact: Judit Erdös, Claudia Wild
The economic and societal dimension of parental mental illness
Children and adolescents from so-called ‘parents with a mental illness’ have a potentially increased risk of developing negative (health) consequences on the way to their adulthood. One option to mitigate or even prevent negative consequences are family-oriented intervention programmes with social support systems. Gaps in health economic knowledge is a barrier to grasp the overall benefit of these programmes. The report is intended to serve as a source for researchers in order to conduct sound impact assessments of family-oriented intervention programmes and to raise awareness in policy makers about the economic and societal dimensions of mental illness in families.
Publication: HTA Project Report No. 142: https://eprints.aihta.at/1351/
Contact: Christoph Strohmaier
National strategies and programmes for preventing and managing non-communicable diseases in selected countries
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide and are responsible for a high burden of disease. Many countries have developed national strategies for the management and prevention of NCDs in order to improve the care of chronically ill people or to prevent NCDs. This report aims to provide an overview of national NCD strategies from selected countries and their implementation as well as to summarise evaluation findings on specific programmes. The focus was on chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and depression.
Publication: HTA Project Report No. 139: https://eprints.aihta.at/1349/
Contact: Lucia Gassner, Inanna Reinsperger
Process and evaluation of digital health applications in the context of “symptom-checkers”
Digital health applications (DiGAs) are increasingly using diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms. However, for the majority of currently available DiGAs, there is limited evidence on the medical or organizational benefit. Based on a suggested evaluation process for DiGAs outlined by AIHTA (Project report 2020: “Framework for reimbursement decisions of digital health technologies”), the proposed process for an evidence-based evaluation has been further refined and applied in a sample evaluation of a DiGA from the group of the so-called “symptom-checkers”.
Publication: HTA Projekt Report No. 141: https://eprints.aihta.at/1348/
Contact: Reinhard Jeindl
Horizon Scanning in Oncology - Fact Sheets
We are pleased to introduce our new HSO Fact Sheet.
Fact Sheet No. 71
Sotorasib (Lumykras®): Sotorasib (Lumykras®) as monotherapy for the treatment of advanced NSCLC with KRAS G12C mutation
Horizon Scanning in Oncology - Fact Sheets
We are pleased to introduce our four new HSO Fact Sheets.
Fact Sheet No. 67
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with Lenvatinib (Kisplyx) for the firstline treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC)
Fact Sheet No. 68
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with Lenvatinib (Kisplyx) for the treatment of advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma (EC)
Fact Sheet No. 69
Amivantamab (Rybrevant) as monotherapy for the treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
Fact Sheet No. 70
Sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy) as monotherapy for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC)
Covid-19: HSS/ Horizon Scanning Living Document (v18 October/November 2021)
The establishment of a HSS/ Horizon Scanning System for Covid19 interventions has the intentions of informing health policy makers at an early stage which interventions (vaccinations and drugs) are currently undergoing clinical trials and to monitor them over the next few months in order to support evidence-based purchasing if necessary. The products are monitored with regard to the status of the clinical studies up to approval and finally evaluated for their benefit and harm.
All work steps are conducted in close international (European) cooperation.
Publications:
- Policy Brief No. 002: http://eprints.aihta.at/1234/
Contact: Claudia Wild
Long COVID care pathways: a systematic review
Due to the expected growing number of long COVID cases and the associated increasing average sick leave durations, it not only places a burden on the patients and their families but also the wider economy, in particular, the workforce. The present systematic review aimed to support preparations and adjustments in the long COVID care planning in Austria by giving (1) an overview of recommendations about long COVID care pathways for adult patients as well as (2) examples of already existing care structures in selected European countries.
Publlication: HTA Project Report No. 135b: https://eprints.aihta.at/1342
Contact: Sarah Wolf