Poland in the European ranking of access to innovative therapies

Waiting to Access Innovative Therapies measures the availability of innovative therapies to patients in Europe. Poland maintained its 20th place among the 36 countries analyzed, but the good news basically ends there. The number of reimbursed therapies fell from 69 to 68, and the level of availability dropped from 41 percent to 39 percent. Moreover, it should be recalled that in the previous edition of the report Poland moved up as many as five places. The retention of the position can be interpreted not so much as a neutral stabilization, but a worrying stagnation, or at least - a deceleration of the positive trend of previous years.

Reimbursement in Poland covered 68 out of 173 innovative therapies registered between 2020 and 2023. This means that patients have access to 39 percent of the drugs included, while the EU average is 46 percent. By comparison, 69 of 167 therapies (41 percent) were reimbursed in last year's survey. Poland remains ahead of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria or the Baltic states in the ranking, being also ahead of Ireland or Norway. However, we are overtaken not only by the other Western European countries, but also by Slovenia, Bulgaria or the Czech Republic - the leader of the Central and Eastern European region, which ranks seventh.

The number of reimbursed therapies does not tell the whole truth about actual availability. Of the 68 reimbursed therapies in Poland, as many as 85 percent are available with restrictions - e.g., only to patients at a certain stage of the disease or who meet additional conditions of the drug program. Two years ago, the percentage was 78 percent. - and so here a deterioration is evident.

A positive sign, however, is the reduction in the average time from drug registration to reimbursement. It now stands at 723 days - 81 days less than a year ago. Poland is still at the end of the European pile, ahead of only Bulgaria, Slovakia, Lithuania, Romania, Portugal and Malta. At the other end are patients in Germany, who wait an average of 128 days for drugs, and in Austria, 309.

In the area of oncology, 27 innovative drug therapies are reimbursed, which gives us access at 48 percent and places Poland just below the European average of 50 percent. Almost all drugs (96 percent) are available only to selected groups of patients. The good news: the waiting time for new therapies in oncology has decreased by more than two months (to 762 days) compared to the previous edition. In rare diseases, Polish patients have access to 25 reimbursed therapies, which means 38 percent availability (EU average - 42 percent). 92 percent of therapies are available with restrictions. However, the time from registration to reimbursement in this case has shortened only symbolically, by seven days (to 743 days).

- At a time when Poland is presiding over the EU Council and health security is one of its priorities, we must remember that access to modern treatment means real benefits for patients, greater efficiency of the health care system and a positive impact on the development of the economy," comments Michał Byliniak, General Director of the Union of Employers of Innovative Pharmaceutical Companies INFARMA, on the results of the report.