This perspective was first shared in our Weekly View e-newsletter, which summarizes the week’s most significant drug pricing news. To subscribe, click here.
We hope you were able to take some time over the past two weeks and relax with the people you love. While you were making those memories — and presumably not making much news — media outlets had to find some sort of content to fill their pages. And we can’t really blame those that turned to good old “year in review” clickbait.
Ever ambitious, STAT took this concept one step further with its own terrific summary of the most significant drugs from the past decade. In introducing their list of treatments that transformed the health care landscape, the reporters rightly point out, “There’s no questioning the impact of every one of these drugs. But with almost every one, there is controversy about something else: their price.”
Not coincidentally, ICER has taken a close look at nearly all of the treatments on STAT’s list, including Keytruda and Opdivo, Kalydeco and Trikafta, Sovaldi and Harvoni, Jardiance and Rybelsus, Zolgensma, Hemlibra, Kymriah and Yescarta, and Onpattro. And while we found that some of these drugs have prices that align fairly with their ability to improve patients’ lives, others on the list would require significant discounts to be considered cost-effective by any commonly cited standard.
In 2020, we’ll continue to assess new treatments that 1) offer significant potential for improved patient outcomes, 2) raise new questions about the comparative clinical effectiveness of similar treatments, and/or 3) have the potential for significant financial impact on patients and the health system. And in keeping our focus on these consequential factors, we’re hopeful our independent analyses will help Americans achieve fair pricing for — and fair access to — the next decade’s most significant medicines.