Today's ICER meeting might get heated

The banally named Institute for Clinical and Economic Review doesn’t usually cause much of a fuss when it gets together to discuss which drugs are worth their costs. But ICER’s next meeting, slated for this afternoon, could get a little noisy.

As STAT’s Kate Sheridan reports, Patients Rising Now, an advocacy group and vocal opponent of ICER, has promised to face off with the nonprofit as it reviews three drugs for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

The organization, which was created under a section of tax law that allows it to not disclose its direct donors, has described ICER as a “dangerous,” insurance company-backed “Trojan Horse” and a “mysterious group” with the power to block new treatments from development and rollback the Affordable Care Act.

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