Overview

⏱️Schedule:  Doors 18:30 → Talk 19:00→ Q&A → Mingle
🌐Language: English

Regenerative medicines may do more than manage symptoms — they can target the underlying cause of disease, prevent irreversible damage, and change the course of lifelong conditions. But they also raise difficult questions. When a single treatment can cost more than several houses, healthcare systems must assess not only whether it works, but for whom, for how long, and whether its price represents a responsible use of public resources.

Health economist Andrea Greco studies how these difficult decisions are made. His research examines how healthcare systems balance scientific innovation, patient needs, evidence uncertainty, and limited healthcare budgets. In this talk, he guides the audience through Health Technology Assessment (HTA) — the process used to evaluate whether new treatments provide sufficient clinical and societal value to be funded and made available to patients.

What we'll cover

• Health Technology Assessment (HTA): the process behind new medicines — and why almost every major treatment passes through it before it ever reaches you
• Why the most exciting breakthroughs are often the hardest to pay for
• What happens when a treatment's evidence looks promising but the long-term picture is still unclear
• Managed entry agreements — how systems pay for a medicine now while gathering more evidence on whether it actually delivers
• What the price we're willing to pay for medicine really says about the kind of society we are

Speaker

Andrea Greco

Health economist and PhD candidate at UMC Utrecht and Utrecht University

Andrea researches how healthcare systems decide which new treatments — including gene and cell therapies — are worth paying for. His work focuses on advanced therapies where clinical promise, high costs, and long-term uncertainty collide. He has conducted research across European institutions including SDA Bocconi School of Management and the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and contributes to initiatives including SUSTAIN-HTA and CURE4LIFE, both focused on strengthening how Europe assesses and pays for gene therapies.