The need for timely access to innovative technologies has placed a special focus on the development of policies and practices that can guarantee the availability whilst ensuring the safety of these technologies after launch or licensure. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss Post-Launch Evidence Generation (PLEG) practices among health technology assessment (HTA) bodies at the European level to explore cross-border collaboration opportunities.

In December 2019, a survey composed of nine closed-ended questions with multiple choice answers about the PLEG practices in each country was sent to 25 partners of the European Network of Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) Joint Action 3. In addition to the survey, the national practices were discussed during a face-to-face meeting with all partners of the dedicated work package. A quantitative analysis and a qualitative synthesis of the results was carried out.

Twelve HTA bodies completed the survey. Of these, 11 reported procedures in place for official PLEG requests. In nine of the agencies, the requests are made at the time of the assessment/appraisal. Data collection and analysis mainly lies with companies for pharmaceuticals (60%) while it is more the responsibility of the HTA body for medical devices (75%). Only one agency reported owning the data and being able to exchange the data without asking permission. During the face-to face discussions, it was acknowledged that PLEG practices differ between countries depending on the topic concerned, but most rely on the usage of registries (mainly disease registries) for data collection. Most agencies estimated that a European collaboration could take place.

PLEG practices are in the remit of many European HTA bodies. Data sharing should be anticipated as only some own the data and can exchange them without asking permission. European collaboration on PLEG could commence once the evidence gaps have been defined or during the production of the HTA reports in the case of joint assessments.