Hello, everyone and welcome to Sounds of Science, a series of podcasts organized by

the European Trade Body representing small and medium-sized companies active in pharmaceuticals and medical technologies.

My name is Laurent Louette.

I am Senior Manager Communications and Public Affairs at UCOB,

and I will be the host for today's episode.

Before we go on, please make sure to subscribe to our channels and follow us on social media

or on our website www.ucope.org to receive the latest

updates. We will focus today on the recent discussions around the European Commission proposal

for a health technology assessment, what we call HDA regulation.

HTA is the systematic evaluation of properties, effects,

and our impacts of a health technology.

It is a multidisciplinary process

to evaluate the social, economic, and ethical issues

of a health intervention or a health technology.

The main purpose of HTA is to inform a policy decision-making by governments.

And we'll discuss today how the proposal from the Commission to streamline HTA processes in the

EU could be a game changer and why it has so far received mixed appraisal from member states.

We are very happy to be joined today by two experts

in the field, Anna Palma and Alexander Natz. Anna, you are senior director, Global Head of Market

Access and Access Policy at Sobe, Swedish Biofarmar Company, developing therapies for rare disease

in amatology, immunology and specialty care.

And you are also a member of the UNITA initiative representing UKO.

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