Spain: health tech assessment gets extra €3.6m

NEWS – Spain’s eight health technology assessment (HTA) agencies are to get almost €3.6m as an annual top-up of their current budgets, to directly bolster their activities in 2018.

The funding is part of an extra €33.6m rubber-stamped today by the Council of Ministers following its approval by the national health system’s Interterritorial Council at its meeting of November 8.

The eight HTA agencies will get the following share:
AETSA (Andalusia)              €555,000
IACS (Aragon)                      €700,000
SESCS (Canaries)                 €555,000
AQuAS (Catalonia)              €555,000
Avalia-t (Galicia)                €555,000
UETS (Madrid)                    €100,000
Osteba (Basque Country)   €555,000
TOTAL                                €3,575,000

The extra €33.6m approved by the Interterritorial Council also features allocations totalling €1.8m to improve rates of early diagnosis of rare diseases. The headline development is the launch of regional pilots to provide rapid-access genetic testing among suspected familial cases. This project alone will receive €800k.

The Interterritorial Council consists of the national health ministry and 19 decentralised health departments — ie 17 regional governments and Spain’s two African enclaves.