It’s an odd, chalk-and-cheese notion: that a typically European, rather socialist form of pricing and reimbursement reform such as AMNOG, Germany’s system of early added-benefit assessment for new drugs, could help drive more free-market-style competition between the country’s statutory health insurance (SHI) funds. There are signs that it’s happening, though — albeit via a roundabout route. That matters to pharma, since more competition among payers means a more aggressive efficacy drive. That may in turn … Continue reading
The Healthcare Round-up: July 20-27
Might Ultra-Orphans Enjoy An Easier Passage Past NICE? Perhaps. After much back-and-forth, it seems our old friend NICE will, starting in 2013, assess the cost-effectiveness of high-cost drugs for patients suffering from ultra-rare diseases (affecting fewer than 500 patients across England). These kinds of products, increasingly popular with drug firms, generally struggle to meet NICE’s general evidence requirements (given the difficulty of data collection). Thus, in the past, the agency has considered – and approved … Continue reading
Votrient’s European HTA Report Card: Could Do Better
Harmonizing Europe’s patchwork of health technology assessment systems is probably a pharma pipe dream (albeit one that the economic crisis could push closer to reality). But the 28-member EUnetHTA network, created with this lofty goal in mind, has already done something useful for payers and pharma. It has created a European-level relative effectiveness report-card for GSK’s renal cancer drug Votrient. The marks aren’t great. Now ok, they were only mock exams: the drug was part … Continue reading
Orphan vs Effectiveness: German Payers Win 11% Discount on Esbriet
InterMune’s orphan drug for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), Esbriet, on July 23 became the second product to be priced within Germany’s new reimbursement system. The result: an almost 11% discount on the drug’s initial ‘free’ price in Germany (in place since September 2011), on top of the 16% mandatory rebate that for now affects all drugs in Germany. Superficially, that looks like a clear win for payers. But it’s not entirely bad news for pharma either — … Continue reading
The RE Healthcare Round-Up
Real Endpoints’ Weekly Healthcare Round-Up has returned. Cue Carol Anne of the ’86 cult flick Poltergeist II – or, if you prefer, the infamous, avenging nerd Lewis (Revenge of the Nerds II) or the exuberant but dorky Stu Price (The Hangover). Feel free to mock our retro-culture cool, but don’t doubt our enthusiasm…or the importance of synthesis. In the six weeks since our last Round-Up, we’ve seen the approval of Qsymia and Belviq, two new … Continue reading
Could the Euro Crisis Accelerate a Unified HTA Process?
As several European economies teeter on the brink of total breakdown, possibly taking the Euro currency with them, what’s the deal for drug pricing & reimbursement? The negatives are easy to spot: acceleration of the already-downward pricing trend in Europe, more blanket price cuts, more patient self-pay (such as in Spain) and more Greek hospitals unable to pay their drugs bills. Indeed, it’s not even good news from Europe’s engine economy, Germany, where the actual … Continue reading