ICER and Unsupported Price Increases

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) recently announced that it would annually review treatments with significant price increases to determine if these changes are unsupported by evidence on value. I was recently interviewed by Radar on Specialty Pharmacy to discuss the topic.

Jason Shafrin, Ph.D., a senior director of policy and economics at Precision Health Economics, notes that the group’s prior approach to measuring therapies’ value “focused solely on value at a drug’s launch. This approach is problematic because not only do prices change over time, but so does the evidence surrounding a drug’s long-run efficacy and safety. For instance, new trials may provide additional insight into subpopulations that may benefit more from a medicine, and real-world data analysis can determine whether effectiveness is better or worse than the efficacy observed in clinical trials. Thus, updating value measurement over time is essential for these reports to be relevant after drug launch.”

Please do read the whole article to get my full take on ICER’s approach for identifying unsupported price increases.

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