News from Monday, February 9, 2026
Articles
SGLT2 Inhibitors in T2D Lower 5-Year Risk of CKD and Acute Kidney Injury
(2/6, Luke Halpern, Pharmacy Times) reports “Results from a comparative effectiveness study conducted in Denmark show that initiation of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor (SGLT2i) treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) was associated with a lower 5-year risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and a lower 5-year count of acute kidney injury (AKI). The research, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, demonstrates the potential of SGLT2is to be the primary prevention treatment of choice to reduce the risk of kidney disease.” Full
The Next Generation of Trial Designs: Supplementing Trials with Real-World Data
(2/9, Billy Amzal, PharmExec) comments “...[D]rug developers must answer key questions to ensure feasibility and successful implementation. These include which use cases and under which conditions it is most appropriate to utilize RWD, which are the most effective RWD sources and statistical methods to utilize and how to create a more sustainable approach to data augmentation.” Full
HHS Hints At Potential Legal-Proof Retry Of Rescinded 340B Rebate Pilot
(2/6, Gabrielle Wanneh, Inside Health Policy) reports “HHS has officially scrapped its controversial plan to test the use of after-the-fact rebates instead of upfront 340B drug discounts after a court shot it down, but the agency hints in a court brief it may try to revamp the rebate pilot to align it with the Administrative Procedure Act. Should the department decide to create a new 340B rebate pilot, HHS tells the United States District Court for the District of Maine it would solicit public comments either before it issues a new notice and new participation applications for drug companies or simultaneously as the new materials are issued, according to a joint motion for vacatur and remand filed by HHS Thursday.” Subscription Required
Scotland: SMC Rejects Sotatercept For Pulmonary Hypertension
(2/9, Dr Rob Hicks, Medscape) reports “The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has rejected the use of sotatercept for improving exercise capacity in adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in NHS Scotland. The regulator said the evidence did not demonstrate sufficient cost effectiveness compared with existing therapies.” Full
Press Releases
Health Equity Research Goes Global—Without Waiting for Perfect Data
(2/9, ISPOR Press Release) “Value in Health Regional Issues, a journal of ISPOR...announced today the publication of a special collection of research papers in showing that meaningful progress in health equity research is occurring across regions and in settings with different data environments and policy needs. The 6 studies span 5 countries—Australia, Brazil, Iran, Japan, and the United States—demonstrating both shared challenges and locally-tailored solutions...The goal of the themed section is to provide practical and actionable examples of how health equity questions can be explored today.” Full
Faster, Fairer Access to HealthTech under New National Programme
(2/9, NICE Press Release) “...The new National Healthtech Access Programme (previously called the Rules Based Pathway) is a collaborative approach between NICE, the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, MHRA and the Office for Life Sciences. The approach will expand NICE’s Technology Appraisals programme to incorporate health technologies. This means that like medicines, a small selection of high-impact technologies will be reimbursed and made available across the entire health service.” Full
Journals
Contextualizing New Estimates of Coding Intensity in Medicare Advantage and Opportunities for Further Research
Loren Adler, Yevgeniy Feyman , Benedic Ippolito
January 2026, Health Affairs Scholar
Value of Clinical Evidence and Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR) Studies
Agessandro Abrahao, et al.
February 2026, Muscle & Nerve
Comparative Safety of Advanced Therapies for Crohn Disease
Soo-Kyung Park, et al.
February 2, 2026, JAMA Network Open
Comparative Effectiveness and Safety Landscape of Anti-VEGF Therapies for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Insights from a Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis
Kai-Yang Chen, et al.
February 5, 2026, Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
Protocol for the Development of a Tool (INSPECT-IPD) to Identify Problematic Randomised Controlled Trials When Individual Participant Data Are Available
Calvin Heal, et al.
February 7, 2026, medRxiv
Evaluating Treatment Effectiveness: Complementing RCTs with Real-World Data
Christina G Rivera, et al.
February 9, 2026, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy
R WE Ready for Reimbursement? A Round-Up of Developments in Real-World Evidence Relating to Health Technology Assessment: Part 24
Paul Arora and Sreeram V Ramagopalan
February 9, 2026, Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research