Hello, everyone, and welcome to this edition of Excelsior Solutions’ ICER Update. This week’s update is a little bit different because rather than linking to and commenting on some of ICER’s “primary” work (of which there was none published this week, by the way), I have provided links to two articles below that discuss the impact of ICER’s work among real-world decision makers such as yourselves. I hope that you enjoy the slight change of pace.
Can We Afford to Be Cured? A Conversation With ICER’s Steve Pearson (Xconomy) Xconomy’s Alex Lash sat down with ICER’s President, Dr. Steve Pearson to pick his brain about how society can assess the value of, and pay for, the first two gene therapies on the market as well as the others on their way.
In advance of the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting, Neurology Today summarized ICER’s recent assessment of treatments for spinal muscular atrophy and spoke with multiple clinical experts to gather their reactions. Dr. Gregory J. Esper, chair of the AAN Health Services Research Subcommittee, provided the concluding perspective: “Ultimately, while these drugs represent new hope for SMA patients, the realities of limited resources for global medical spending must be addressed in order to ensure unintended consequences, such as limited access to care and treatment for other patients with other diseases. My desire is that we can somehow make it all work.”
If you would like to discuss these articles, or any other aspects of your Pharmacy Benefit Plan, simply reach out to your Excelsior Solutions account team and we will be happy to quickly set up a call.
Until next time!
Bob has more than 30 years of diverse experience in the pharmacy industry. Over the course of his career, Bob has led clinical and PBM operations teams in successfully managing more than $4 billion in annual drug spend. This was also while limiting per-member-per-year spending growth to levels that have simultaneously drawn industry acclaim and consistently high levels of member and payer satisfaction.