Sep 30, 2025
Slovakia is an outlier in CEE with the slowest access to innovative medicines – FSF calls for predictability, professionalism, and systemic reform.
The Future Slovakia Forum (FSF), through its expert platform Healthy Future of Slovakia, today released its official position on the Ministry of Health’s proposed HTA methodological guideline. The statement builds on yesterday’s social media announcement and highlights eight key themes where the proposed changes risk worsening access to treatment without improving fiscal stability.
Slovakia already lags dramatically: patients wait on average 797 days for new medicines (vs. ~356 days CEE average, 578 EU), with only 27% of innovations available (vs. 46% EU). This extreme delay makes Slovakia an outlier even in the CEE region.
Technocratic tightening without vision: new HTA rules add barriers instead of improving predictability and cost-effectiveness.
Reform 2022 works – but implementation fails: pharmaceutical spending is the most efficiently managed budget item, yet innovation access is blocked by unprofessional processes.
Financial paradox: medicines account for less than 20% of healthcare spending and their share is decreasing, yet overall costs keep rising due to inefficiencies and delayed prevention and treatment.
FSF calls for: - Professionalization over bureaucratization – modern HTA methods, qualified teams, transparent processes. - Systemic approach – multikriteriálne hodnotenie (MCDA), managed entry agreements (MEA), real-world evidence (RWE). - Measurable goals by 2029: time-to-access ≤ 530 days, availability ≥ 40%.
“Every Slovak citizen may tomorrow need treatment that, under current rules, won’t be available. Pharmaceutical policy is not a technocratic exercise – it is an investment in healthier ageing, fiscal sustainability, and economic growth,” the FSF statement concludes.
Read👇 the full position paper here :
Reaction👇 of NIHO to our position paper is here:
👇 Our (HFS) reaction to NIHO - incl. co-operation proposal - is here:
👇 Our reaction to MEDICINA.SK article of 6th October: "New drugs. The question is whether we can afford them and whether we need them all"- is here:
Expert group shaping Slovakia’s path to sustainable, patient-focused healthcare:
