On September 13th, 2018, the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) issued details on a new CADTH and Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS) pilot project to jointly engage with clinical specialists.
According to CADTH’s communication, the objectives of the pilot project are to:
- Strengthen the current pharmaceutical review processes used by CADTH and INESSS with respect to engagement with Canadian clinical specialists.
- Facilitate a broader representation of clinical specialists, with the goal of integrating pan Canadian expertise into the review processes for drugs that are likely to be associated with complex evaluations and challenging deliberations.
- Promote efficiency within Canadian health technology assessment processes by reducing duplication of effort.
CADTH and INESSS will collaborate to establish a group of clinical specialists to consult with about select drug products. This consultation will occur in parallel with the respective review process that each organization performs, which will remain independent. The goal of having joint clinical panels is to integrate pan-Canadian expertise into the review process for drugs with challenging deliberations and complex evaluations.
This initial pilot project will be limited to drugs undergoing review through CADTH’s Common Drug Review and INESSS, and will not involve drugs reviewed via CADTH’s pCODR (pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review) process. CADTH and INESSS will collaborate to select drugs for inclusion in the pilot, and then the drug manufacturers will be notified of the selection. CADTH states that no established review timelines will be affected by being included in this pilot.
Further information on the scope, selection of drugs, clinical panel details, and evaluation of the pilot can be found here: https://cadth.ca/sites/default/files/corporate/CADTH-INESSS-Pilot_Announcement.pdf
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