Aurora, Colorado and Boston, Mass., September 27, 2016 – The University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) have formed a partnership to leverage CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy’s expertise in economic modeling of pharmaceutical interventions to support ICER’s growing body of work in new drug assessments. The school’s Center for Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research (CePOR) will provide health economic research support to ICER for use in ICER’s reports for its drug assessment program. CePOR is renowned for its research excellence in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacoeconomics, and ICER is a leader in producing reports that address the clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and potential budgetary impact of high-profile interventions. As part of the agreement, CePOR researchers will develop cost-effectiveness models for several drugs that are soon-to-be or recently approved by the FDA, leveraging evidence synthesis work performed by ICER and publicly-available data.
“This collaboration allows CePOR researchers to generate evidence consistent with emerging U.S. value frameworks that will aid patients and clinicians in making informed decisions on therapy choice, as well as population-level decision making on the coverage, reimbursement, and placement in clinical guidelines for newly FDA approved medications,” said Jon Campbell, Ph.D., Associate Professor and lead investigator on the ICER collaboration.
“CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy’s esteemed faculty has a wealth of experience across multiple clinical areas, and we are thrilled to formalize our collaboration,” said Dan Ollendorf, PhD., ICER’s Chief Scientific Officer. “This partnership reaffirms ICER’s commitment to working with the most qualified organizations as we continue to expand our health economics network.”
ICER’s reports include an overall value framework including, among other domains, a drug’s comparative effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and potential budget impact. ICER uses transparent methods to calculate for each new drug a value-based price benchmark anchored to the real benefits the drug brings to patients. The university will employ robust and commonly used health economics methods to estimate the comparative impact of select new medications in terms of their incremental costs for better clinical outcomes. These findings will be incorporated into ICER’s larger reports. CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy will be providing expertise on the cost-effectiveness analyses, while ICER will ultimately be responsible for calculating the value-based price benchmark.
The first collaboration with researchers from the school was on the evaluation of mepolizumab for severe eosinophilic asthma. The school is also collaborating on an ongoing evaluation of targeted immune modulators for moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis.
About CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
At the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, our faculty members are preparing the world’s future pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists through innovative learning and teaching. Our researchers are leading medical discoveries that advance science and improve health care. We’re enhancing culture and community through programs that reach urban and rural Coloradans. And our collaborations in research, patient care and community service are helping to ensure the health and wellness of Colorado and beyond. Nationally recognized for its leadership in pharmacy education and its strong commitment to developing and sustaining a diverse faculty, staff and student body, the Skaggs School of Pharmacy has achieved many milestones in its 100-plus year history including being ranked in the top 20 percent of all schools of pharmacy in the country, and fifth in the nation for total NIH funding.
About ICER
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is an independent non-profit research institute that produces reports analyzing the evidence on the effectiveness and value of drugs and other medical services. ICER’s reports include evidence-based calculations of prices for new drugs that accurately reflect the degree of improvement expected in long-term patient outcomes, while also highlighting price levels that might contribute to unaffordable short-term cost growth for the overall health care system.
ICER’s reports incorporate extensive input from all stakeholders and are the subject of public hearings through three core programs: the California Technology Assessment Forum (CTAF), the Midwest Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council (Midwest CEPAC), and the New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council (New England CEPAC). These independent panels review ICER’s reports at public meetings to deliberate on the evidence and develop recommendations for how patients, clinicians, insurers, and policymakers can improve the quality and value of health care. For more information about ICER, please visit ICER’s website.