Meeting on the Med 2021 | Improving patient access to advanced therapies

Ana Hidalgo-Simon, MD, PhD, European Medicines Agency, Amsterdam, Netherlands, discusses some of the key challenges associated with enabling patient access to advanced therapies and how these could be addressed in the future. Complications remain around the pricing and reimbursement of advanced therapies, the curative potential of advanced therapies makes patient follow up difficult and post-authorization processes need to be streamlined. Dr Hidalgo-Simon highlights the importance of considering these aspects during the early stages of product development, as well as the benefit of communication been developers and health technology assessment bodies. This interview took place during the Cell & Gene Meeting on the Mediterranean 2021 virtual conference.