Imatinib: where the agencies disagree
This page collects every recorded health technology assessment decision for one molecule across the agencies in our archive, and compares them. The comparison is the point: each agency publishes its own verdict, none publishes how that verdict sits against the others.
What the record shows
HAS (France), PBAC (Australia) and PHARMAC (New Zealand), among others, recommended or restricted imatinib, while AWMSG (Wales) did not recommend it.
The file has been open for more than a decade: 21.4 years separate the first record, 21 Feb 2002 at PHARMAC (New Zealand), from the most recent, 2023 at PBAC (Australia).
No assessment is on file from TLV (Sweden), CIPM (Spain) and G-BA (Germany), each among the eight highest-volume agencies here.
Not every gap is a refusal: for imatinib, 6 submissions were never made and 1 was withdrawn or terminated before a decision — an outcome set by the company rather than the assessor.
The programme is broad: 16 distinct indication wordings are recorded for imatinib by the agencies that label one in English (AWMSG, NICE, PBAC and SMC).
3 of these 30 records carry a year of decision but no day, so any interval quoted here is approximate to within a year.
PHARMAC (New Zealand) was first to assess imatinib, on 21 Feb 2002; PBAC (Australia) did not open a file until 2015 — an unusually long tail of 13.4 years between the earliest and latest system to look at it.
The record arrives in waves: 7 separate years each carry two or more decisions, spread across 14 years in total.
Restriction is doing real work here: 3 of 11 decisive outcomes narrowed imatinib to a subgroup rather than accepting or refusing it outright, at NICE (England) and SMC (Scotland).
6 of the 6 agencies here assessed imatinib more than once, SMC (Scotland) most often at 10 entries — repeat review is the norm for this molecule rather than the exception.
6 of the 18 agencies in this archive hold a record for imatinib.
The full ledger for imatinib reads 9 other, 6 recommended, 6 non-submission and 3 restricted, with 6 in other categories.
Decisions on file
| Agency | Date | Indication as recorded | Outcome | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PBAC (Australia) | 2023 | Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) | Not Applicable | source |
| HAS (France) | 6 Nov 2019 | Listing (Transparency Committee) | SMR substantial · ASMR V | source |
| NICE (England) | 26 Nov 2014 | NICE TA326 | recommended (optimised) | source |
| AWMSG (Wales) | 25 Jul 2014 | Adjuvant treatment, for up to 36 months, of adult patients who are at significant risk of relapse following resection of… | superseded (full) | source |
| SMC (Scotland) | 7 Oct 2013 | Treatment of paediatric patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (Ph+ ALL) integrated with chemotherapy. | not recommended | source |
25 further decisions for imatinib, across 6 agencies, are not shown here. They link to 17 further source documents.
Related molecules
- asciminib — divergent outcome (other vs recommended) on a shared indication
- dasatinib — divergent outcome (other vs recommended) on a shared indication
- atezolizumab — same ATC class L01X — Antineoplastics
- olaparib — same ATC class L01X — Antineoplastics
- durvalumab — same ATC class L01X — Antineoplastics
- aflibercept — same ATC class L01X — Antineoplastics
Coverage: 30 decisions for imatinib from 6 agencies, 2002 to 2023. Data to 7 Sep 2026. ATC class L01X — Antineoplastics. How this page is produced. Compiled by Altima Partners; queries: sales@altimapartners.co.uk.