CER Daily Newsfeed

2025 Health Care Outlook: John O'Brien, NPC

(1/17, John O'Brien, Chain Drug Review) comments “...The thread through all these conversations is that our current system looks at medicines through the lens of the amount of margin that can be extracted for various middlemen. That ends up leaving patients on the hook while continuing to take cuts out of the resources available to generate new breakthroughs to address unmet need. It is important that medicines are valued based on what the science and evidence tells us. When you ask physicians which medical innovations have impacted outcomes most for U.S. patients diagnosed with debilitating health conditions, they attribute more than half of the improvement in outcomes to biopharmaceutical innovation.” Full

Biden's Latest Drug Plan Picks Revive Push on 'Pill Penalty' Fix

(1/17, Nyah Phengsitthy, Bloomberg Law) reports “...The Biotechnology Innovation Group, which informed lawmakers about unintended consequences of the law, said in a statement Friday that ‘patients and biotech researchers are looking to this new Congress and administration to fix the flaws in this law.’ The unintended consequences are also fueled by the latest list, said John O'Brien, president of the National Pharmaceutical Council. This includes ‘delayed launches, fewer subsequent indications, less post-approval research, all with uncertain impact for the patient,’ O'Brien said in a statement.” Full

How Do High-Deductible Health Plans Affect Patient Experience?

(1/21, Sara Heath, TechTarget) reports “...‘HDHPs are intended to make enrollees more sensitive to the costs of health care services to help lower overall health care spending,’ according to the National Pharmaceutical Council. ‘However, they can also create barriers to health care for people with lower incomes or with chronic conditions requiring regular provider visits or medications. Enrollees can end up paying thousands of dollars in health costs at the start of the year to meet their deductible, leading some to avoid needed care, which results in worse health and productivity.’” Full

Beaten Down Under Biden, Drug-Sector Hopes for New Start

(1/21, David Wainer, The Wall Street Journal) reports “...It isn't clear whether the Trump administration will ease up on the IRA negotiation process, said Shawn Maree Bishop, a former top health adviser to the Senate Finance Committee. But members of the industry are hopeful that the White House could work with Congress to modify the IRA. For instance, noted Bishop, now a senior adviser at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, the industry may be hoping for a pause in negotiations altogether or for changes to what they call the law's ‘pill penalty,’ a provision that requires small molecules to face negotiation four years sooner than biologics.” Subscription Required

Study Shows Potential Population-Level Benefits of Intensive BP Targets in Adults With CKD

(1/20, Gillian McGovern, Pharmacy Times) comments “...The authors of a study published in JAMA Network Open estimated the outcomes that are associated with treating hypertension to a systolic BP (<120 mm Hg) compared with less than 140 mm Hg in 2 Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT)–eligible clinical populations with CKD. This comparative effectiveness study was approved by institutional review boards, the VA Palo Alto Health Care System’s Office of Research and Development, and Kaiser Permanente of Southern California (KPSC).” Full

In Pharma’s Competitive Climate, Companies Need Evidence Beyond Clinical Trials

(1/21, Kelly Bilodeau, PharmaVoice) reports “...‘Increasingly, payers are asking manufacturers to provide evidence of a brand’s superiority beyond mere trial results,’ [Catherine Humphries, senior consultant in advisory services at MMIT,] said...Evidence of a drug’s value must be compelling enough to woo payers and doctors along with value analysis committees and health technology assessment organizations, which requires a more creative approach, Humphries said.” Full

New Guidance to Aid Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of New Drugs

(1/17, Catherine Eckford, European Pharmaceutical Review) reports “A new collaborative report provides best practice recommendations on using surrogate endpoints in health economic models to guide decisions about health technology assessment (HTA). The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) explained that HTA bodies assess evidence on the short-term effects of a drug provided by companies and drug developers. These surrogate endpoints (eg, biomarkers or intermediate outcome) are used to predict the long-term effectiveness of new treatments.” Full