May 2023
Guest editor: Amanda Cole | Associate Director
The Inflation Reduction Act has landed – and don’t we know it!
The importance and controversy surrounding the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) – an act signed into law by President Biden in August 2022 to curtail, among other things, drug prices in the US – was clear from the number of sessions dedicated to it at the recent ISPOR Conference in Boston despite most provisions of the Act not yet having come into effect.
Over the three-day conference, eight live sessions, including two from the OHE, and 15 poster presentations discussed various aspects of the IRA. As a researcher actively working on the IRA, I was keen to learn what other experts and researchers were working on.
So what did I learn?
While there are still many unknowns surrounding the implementation of the IRA, let alone its impact, stakeholders and interested parties are tuning in and thinking hard about what those impacts could be. For manufactures and investors making decisions today on the pipeline assets of tomorrow, those predictions are very likely to be already shaping the direction of future investment and innovation.
The full provisions of the Act are far-reaching and complex. OHE has recently released an Educational Program on the IRA, where you can learn more about that detail. At the top of the agenda for discussion and debate by ISPOR participants was the criteria for price negotiations, which will come into play from 2026 for some high-expenditure Medicare drugs that have been several years on the market. This represents a huge change to US policy. I and others were keen to discuss what role health economics and outcomes research might play in those negotiations, about which we know relatively little so far.
The way those negotiations play out will clearly influence the impact they have, but it seems highly likely that there will be deep price cuts for some drugs. The selection criteria, process, and timing of those price cuts will shape their impact for patient access, expenditure, and biopharmaceutical innovation. Speculating on those impacts gives rise to hope among some, despair among others. You can read more about the latest research and expert insights into the IRA, shared at ISPOR, in an OHE Insights article published today.
The stakes are high, and the world is watching.
NEW FROM OHE
In an editorial recently published in the Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research, OHE authors present recommendations to the pharmaceutical industry aimed at accelerating progress toward more sustainable medicines.
They also highlight the important role that HTA can play in incentivising drug developers to invest in sustainability.
In a paper in Vaccines, OHE authors have estimated the number of hospitalisations that current vaccines against influenza, pneumococcal disease, COVID-19, and a hypothetical Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine, could prevent in the winter among older adults in England.
Costs were then quantified using conventional reference costing and a novel opportunity costing approach. The value of hospital beds freed up by vaccination was up to twice as large using the latter method.
NICE ‘optimised’ decisions support the use of medicines in a smaller group of patients compared to the scope of the NICE appraisal, based on the findings of the clinical and cost-effectiveness evaluation.
In a new analysis, we found that between 2020 to 2022, 56% of optimised decisions recommended treatment for less than half of eligible patients.
On average, 45% of the patient population potentially eligible for the treatment under review was recommended for treatment in NICE’s ‘optimised’ recommendations.
Real-World Evidence (RWE) can provide decision-makers in the healthcare sector with insights into the functioning of health technologies outside of clinical trial settings.
In our latest report, we explore best practices to facilitate the use of RWE in reimbursement decision-making and urge stakeholders internationally to work together to find the best solutions to advance our understanding and use of high-quality data collected in real-world settings.
With a value-based approach to pricing, prices should reflect the value of a new medicine to patients, healthcare systems, and society, versus the current standard of care.
OHE experts investigate the theory and practice of value-based pricing in the pharmaceuticals industry, and provide recommendations for how its implementation can be enhanced to deliver the triple win of patient access; healthcare system sustainability; and innovation, in this report.
In this Insights series we have paired members of the OHE team with an external collaborator to shed some light and share some insights on HTA around the world.
In our second edition, Claudio Jommi, Università del Piemonte Orientale Novara, and Martina Garau, OHE, take us to Italy. The Insight explores current assessment methods and challenges and looks ahead at the changes expected to come into effect later this year.
OUR EVENTS
7 June 2023 | Virtual
In this 90-minute webinar, we will build on the results of the “Supporting the Era of Green Pharmaceuticals in the UK” report. Consequent recommendations for industry, the NHS and UK Government as outlined in the report will be explored.
We will hear from a range of perspectives to capture the breadth of challenges and solutions associated with enhancing sustainability in the UK and globally. The session will end with a panel discussion and an opportunity for the audience to ask questions.
On demand
We will be joined by global experts to discuss the value of equity in access to vaccines worldwide, and hear from practitioners in the economic evaluation of vaccines in resource constrained environments.
The free-to-attend webinar will also allow delegates to discover more about the EVIA programme, with tasters of the content and insights from those who have developed the learning materials and provided in-depth interviews on the economics of vaccines and immunisation in Africa.
7-10 May 2023
The OHE team attended ISPOR 2023 in Boston earlier this month. Take a look at how OHE experts were involved in sessions throughout the event.
There is still time to view if you have a digital conference pass. On demand recordings are available until 23 June 2023.
