News from Thursday, August 21, 2025
Articles
New PCORI Funding Opportunities: Advancing Patient-Centered CER for Real-World Decisions
(8/21, PCORI Blog) comments “...The Addressing Rare Diseases PFA seeks to fund patient-centered CER focused on rare diseases — conditions affecting fewer than 200,000 Americans. PCORI is particularly interested in studies that address symptom management, diagnosis and care delivery for individuals living with these conditions...In addition to funding patient-centered CER, PCORI supports projects to accelerate the implementation of PCORI-funded CER results into clinical practice. PCORI’s Open Competition: Implementation of Findings From PCORI's Research Investments PFA is seeking submissions addressing post-traumatic stress disorder, antibiotic use in children with respiratory infections and hypertension.” Full
Opinion: Look to Competition, Not Mandates, To Lower Drug Prices
(8/20, Kirsten Axelsen, Kenneth E. Thorpe, BioSpace) comments "Before we rush to adopt foreign price controls, we should ask what we're really trading away. Lower sticker prices abroad often come with hidden costs: delayed access, limited availability and stifled investment in innovative technology. The U.S. has a chance to lead-not by emulating restrictive systems but by building on what works: competition, price transparency, innovation and access. Let's not sacrifice the future of American healthcare for short-term savings and imported illusions." Full
US Policy Shift Sparks German Contingency Plans For Accessing ClinicalTrials.gov, PubMed
(8/21, Pink Sheet) reports “IQWiG, Germany’s health technology assessment body, is making contingency plans in case key US resources it relies on for information retrieval, when conducting benefit assessments of new medicines, become unavailable.” Subscription Required
Press Releases
HHS Drives Reform to Restore Patient-Centered Care, Announces Request for Nominations of Members to Serve on Federal Healthcare Advisory Committee
(8/21, CMS Press Release) “...The advisory committee will focus on developing: Actionable policy initiatives to promote chronic disease prevention and management; Opportunities for a regulatory framework of accountability for safety and outcomes that reduce unnecessary red tape and allow providers to focus on improving patient health; Levers to advance a real-time data system, enabling a new standard of excellence in care, rapid claims processing, rapid quality measurement, and rewards; Structural opportunities to improve quality for the most vulnerable in the Medicaid program; and Sustainability of the Medicare Advantage program, identifying opportunities to modernize risk adjustment and quality measures to assess and improve health outcomes.” Full
Breakthrough Life-Extending Combination Treatment for Advanced Bladder Cancer Recommended by NICE
(8/21, NICE Press Release) “NICE has recommended a new first-line treatment for adults with advanced bladder cancer, marking a significant breakthrough for patients facing this devastating disease. Enfortumab vedotin (also known as Padcev and made by Astellas) with pembrolizumab (also known as Keytruda and made by MSD) is recommended for treating unresectable or metastatic urothelial cancer for people who are eligible for platinum-containing chemotherapy.” Full
Journals
Comparative Effectiveness of Prophylactic Antibiotic Regimens in Preventing Infection in Open Fractures: A Prospective Cohort Study
Mohammad Sheibani, et al.
August 21, 2025, BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders
Cost-Utility Analysis Alongside the GORTEC 2014-01 TPExtreme Trial: TPEx versus EXTREME as First-Line Treatment in Patients with Recurrent or Metastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Aldéric M. Fraslin, MSc, et al.
August 21, 2025, Value in Health