1. Introduction

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Introduction

The goal of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is to provide decision-makers with information about the short and long-term consequences of using a health technology.

Assessing the impact of any health technology requires comprehensive information that reflects what is likely to happen in a health system or society. Good analysis requires the use of expert advice and methods from the various disciplines that are used as inputs.

Any medicine that has been given regulatory approval must have demonstrated a favourable benefit-risk ratio in a specific population with information from studies completed while it was under development. An HTA, however, seeks to determine whether the medicine in question could demonstrate added value to the current standard-of-care. To demonstrate this added value, more evidence may be required from a wider range of sources than those used by the pharmaceutical company in pursuit of a marketing authorisation from regulatory authorities.