This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

Every drug that reaches patients has passed through a second, invisible trial: health technology assessment. HTA agencies decide whether a medicine is worth its price — and their verdicts determine which drugs get reimbursed, which get restricted, and which never launch. This course teaches you how that system actually works, created by instructor David LL and brought to life with professional AI production tools.

You'll start with the fundamentals: what HTA is, why payers need it, and how the assessment process runs from submission to decision. Then you'll tour the agencies that shape global markets — Canada's Drug Agency and INESSS, the UK's NICE and SMC, France's HAS, Germany's IQWiG and G-BA under AMNOG, plus the key players in Italy, Spain, the Nordics, Benelux, the United States, Australia, Brazil, and Japan.

Then it gets technical in the best way. You'll learn how HTA dossiers are built — PICOS framing, clinical evidence requirements, indirect comparisons and network meta-analysis — and how economists measure value: QALYs, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, willingness-to-pay thresholds, economic models, budget impact, and uncertainty analysis. You'll see how recommendations turn into prices through managed entry agreements, international reference pricing, and tenders.

Finally, you'll apply it all through realistic case studies — an oncology drug at NICE, a rare disease therapy, a vaccine decision, and what happens when HTA says no — before a dedicated careers section shows you the jobs in HTA and market access, the skills that get you hired, and your first-ninety-days plan for breaking in.

No prior HTA experience needed. No equations, no jargon walls. Just a clear, practical understanding of how medicines earn their price — and how you can build a career in the field.