News from Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Articles
HEMA’s Inaugural Report Misses the Mark for U.S. Patients
(3/11, National Pharmaceutical Council: E.V.I.dently Today Blog) comments “The Health Economics Methods Advisory (HEMA) group, a joint effort by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), Canada's Drug Agency (CDA-AMC), and England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), recently released its inaugural report, ‘Defining Appropriate Benefits for Economic Evaluation of Health Care Technologies.’ Rather than advancing patient-centered HTA methods, the report offers a prescriptive framework that largely reinforces the global status quo. Three concerns stand out.” Full
Mark your Calendar! PCORI to Announce New Funding Opportunities for PCORnet® Studies
(3/9, PCORnet Blog) comments “On April 1, PCORI will release the Broad Pragmatic Studies (BPS) PCORI Funding Announcement (PFA) to support high-quality patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER). Category 3 supports PCORnet® Studies with direct costs of up to $12 million...PCORI has identified four specific areas of emphasis for this PFA: addressing obesity; diabetes prevention, care and treatment; management of urogynecological and pelvic pain; and pain management for individuals living with Sickle Cell Disease.” Full
The Ambulatory Specialty Model: The Next Step Toward Engaging Specialists In Accountable Care
(3/11, Joshua M. Liao, Amol S. Navathe, Health Affairs Forefront) comments “...ASM will use ‘Value Pathways’ in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) to assess performance in quality, cost, improvement activities, and interoperability, applying payment adjustments on future Part B claims based on performance relative to peers. Given its design, the model seeks to position specialists as more central, rather than peripheral, participants in accountable care arrangements. ASM seeks to do so in several ways—including changes in the care setting, clinical pathways, and episode-based cost measures.” Full
UK: NHS to Offer Fezolinetant for Menopause-Related Hot Flushes and Night-Sweats
(3/11, John Pinching, PharmaTimes) reports “Astellas Pharma has announced that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has issued Final Draft Guidance recommending fezolinetant 45 mg once daily for treating moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms associated with menopause when hormone replacement therapy is unsuitable. The decision means the treatment will be made available through the NHS, offering a new non-hormonal option for people experiencing disruptive hot flushes and night-sweats.” Full
Press Releases
FDA Approves First Treatment for Patients with Cerebral Folate Transport Deficiency
(3/10, FDA Press Release) “...‘The approval of leucovorin for FOLR1-related cerebral folate transport deficiency (CFD- FOLR1) demonstrates the FDA’s commitment to rapidly identifying effective treatments for ultra rare diseases while maintaining the same evidentiary standards for approval,’ said Tracy Beth Hoeg, M.D., Ph.D., Acting Director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. ‘It also provides a good example of how observational or “real world” evidence can lead to an FDA approval when the product is shown to provide clear clinical benefit compared with what is seen with the natural history of the disease.’” Full
Prior Authorization May Hinder Access to Lifesaving Heart Failure Medications
(3/11, NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Langone Health Press Release) “...‘Our results suggest that prior authorization may be doing harm when it comes to guideline-recommended medications with no generic alternatives,’ said study lead author and cardiologist Amrita Mukhopadhyay, MD, ‘While these policies are meant to control health care costs by steering patients toward lower-priced alternatives, they may instead be keeping people with heart failure from timely access to lifesaving treatments.’ Mukhopadhyay is the Eugene Braunwald, MD, Assistant Professor of Cardiology in the NYU Grossman School of Medicine's Department of Medicine and its Leon H. Charney Division of Cardiology.” Full
Journals
Prior Authorization Requirements and Prescription Fill Patterns Among Patients With Heart Failure
Amrita Mukhopadhyay, et al.
January 27, 2026, JACC: Advances
Comparative Effectiveness of Permethrin and Ivermectin on Pruritus and Psychological Outcomes in Scabies: A Prospective Cohort of 600 Adults
Mustafa Esen, et al.
March 11, 2026, Postgraduate Medicine
Comparative Effectiveness of Amitriptyline vs Duloxetine in the Treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain: An Observational Study
Nityananda Sardar, et al.
March 20, 2026, World Journal of Methodology
Reports
Defining Appropriate Benefits for Economic Evaluation of Health Care Technologies
March 11, 2026