CER Daily Newsfeed

Drug Affordability Challenges in the "Patient as Payer" Era

(5/1, Pearl Steinzor, The American Journal of Managed Care) reports “...The health care system is built around access restrictions and margin extraction, favoring high-list, high-rebate products that ultimately harm patients, noted John O’Brien, PharmD, MPH, president and CEO, National Pharmaceutical Council...‘I would like to see more of a focus on patient out-of-pocket cost when we start to think about how new drugs go to market, and if we can combine that with the value to the patient or the value to the purchaser, I think we'd be in a much better place,’ said O’Brien.” Full

ISPOR 2025: Exploring Sessions on Value Assessment

(5/1, The Evidence Base) reports “...Less Is More? Understanding and Rewarding the Full Value of Long-Acting Therapies...Speakers: Jody Jollimore (CATIE), John O'Brien (National Pharmaceutical Council), Sean D Sullivan (University of Washington)...This panel will examine how current HTA and reimbursement frameworks fall short in capturing the full value of long-acting therapies. Panelists will explore methodological and evidentiary gaps, pricing challenges, and broader impacts on patients, carers, and healthcare systems. The session will offer practical strategies to better align decision-making with the transformative potential of long-acting therapies, promoting sustainable access and equitable value recognition across health systems.” Full

New Thrombolytic Choices: Is One Better?

(5/1, Heidi Moawad, MD, Medscape) comments “...In the EXTEND-IA TNK study, 202 patients eligible for thrombectomy were randomized to either tenecteplase or alteplase. Tenecteplase before thrombectomy was associated with a higher incidence of reperfusion and better functional outcome than alteplase among patients treated within 4.5 h after symptom onset. A comparative effectiveness study using data from the nationwide Get With the Guidelines-Stroke registry of 79,550 patients — who received tenecteplase or alteplase, with or without thrombectomy — showed similar safety and efficacy between the two drugs.” Full

Can Real-World Evidence Bear Some of the Burden Left by NIH Cuts? This CEO Sees an Opportunity.

(5/1, Michael Gibney, Pharma Voice) reports “...What are the limits of real-world evidence compared with traditional research? Where does your work fit into that picture? [Brigham Hyde, CEO and co-founder, Atropos Health:] At the top of the pyramid is your double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial. Those should exist, and we want more of those, but the reality is you’re not going to run a trial in every patient. What’s interesting is that, in studies where we’ve replicated clinical trials, real-world evidence tends to agree at about the same rate trials agree with each other. This gets down to how trials are designed — they’re run in very small populations, and 75% of the patient population is systematically excluded for various reasons. We love trials, but we have to acknowledge the gaps. That’s where we fit in.” Full

Non-Submissions To UK HTA Body Could Increase Unless Commercial Environment Improves, Warns Industry

(5/1, Leela Barham, Pink Sheet) reports “...The challenging commercial environment for pharmaceutical companies operating in the UK could make it more likely that drug developers will increasingly fail to submit evidence to support technology appraisals (HTAs) conducted by NICE, the HTA institute for England and Wales, warned Victoria Jorden director of value and access policy at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).” Subscription Required