Drug makers push back on cost-effectiveness research for Medicare drugs

Drug makers push back on cost-effectiveness research for Medicare drugs

STAT Plus: Drug makers push back on cost-effectiveness research for Medicare drugs

By ERIN MERSHON

AP PHOTO/MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ

WASHINGTON — Drug makers are renewing a long-simmering crusade against a nonprofit that conducts comparative-effectiveness research, trumpeting new data that shows seniors with complex diseases would have a harder time accessing their current medicines if Medicare used its findings to favor some drugs over others.

The analysis, conducted by researchers at AmerisourceBergen’s Xcenda with funding from the industry trade group PhRMA, looked at so-called cost-effectiveness thresholds — a kind of evaluation that insurance companies might use to decide whether a given medicine is worth its price. The study focuses in particular on research from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a Boston-based nonprofit known for tackling questions about the value and efficacy of drugs.

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