ICER still ignores patient concerns

We take a deep dive into ICER’s updated treatment assessment—plus, how biotech is making crops more resilient in the face of an increasingly harsher climate. (609 words, 3 minutes, 2 seconds)

ICER’s updated treatment assessment still ignores patient concerns

The Institute for Clinical Economic Review (ICER) on Monday released a new methodology for assessing the value of treatments, but it still uses a measure considered discriminatory.

What’s ICER? A nonprofit offering cost analyses of new treatments, ICER has been criticized by BIO and others for ignoring patient and societal values.

Why it matters: Payers and pharmacy benefit managers use ICER in determining insurance coverage for prescription drugs, impacting patient access. In 2018, 78% of payers said ICER recommendations influenced drug coverage decisions, a study found.

ICER’s first update to its Value Assessment Framework in three years includes some improvements, like more patient engagement and methodology to rate clinical trials based on overall demographic diversity.

But they still use QALYs—quality-adjusted life years—a calculation of a treatment’s benefit that considers a year of perfect health superior to a year of living with illness.

QALYs discriminate against people with disabilities and chronic conditions, according to the National Council on Disability and patient groups, BIO, and proposed legislation. 

ICER’s update ignores calls for improvements,from BIO and others. BIO questioned QALYs and recommended patient-centric assessments incorporating societal value. ICER rejected calls to add additional dimensions of value and a proposed Generalized Risk-Adjusted Cost-Effectiveness Analysis, which would give a more holistic assessment of impacts on patients, caregivers, and society.

What we’re saying: “QALY is very discriminatory. If you’re disabled, you’re downgraded,” explains Daniel Durham, BIO Senior Health Policy Advisor.

More Health News: 

ARPA-H: ARPA-H announces site selections by launching nationwide health innovation network
“The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced the launch of ARPANET-H, a nationwide health innovation network anchored by three ARPA-H regional hubs,” in Dallas, Boston, and the National Capital Region.

Biotech enables heartier crops for a harsher climate

Advances made possible by biotech are making plants able to withstand climate impacts while reducing our climate footprint.

Using CRISPR, and other gene editing techniques, researchers can make the same improvements traditional breeders seek to achieve in a fraction of the time.

Why it matters: Developing more resilient crops quickly “has taken on a new urgency in the face of an increasingly erratic climate,” says The New York Times.

Recent innovations include…

• Strawberries bred for protected environments, like greenhouses, to use fewer resources and grow closer to consumers, BIO member Bayer announced last week.
• Cherries able to withstand warmer winters, from International Fruit Genetics.
• Cauliflower that stays white in the supermarket and does not require extra labor to cover the white “curds,” from Syngenta.
• Melons with deeper roots, to better resist droughts and disease, developed at Texas A&M.
• Wheat with drought resistance, from Bioceres.
• Potatoes that don’t brown, from Simplot. (Also a BIO member.)
• Corn with shorter stalks, leading to higher yield with fewer resources (and the ability to withstand storms), also from Bayer.
• Berries bred to be more nutritious, require fewer inputs, and are easier to harvest because they’re thornless, from Pairwise.
• Avocados with shorter trees that use less water and are easier to harvest, University of California Riverside.

What’s next: Biotech enables agricultural innovation to weather climate impacts, and voters want policy to support it. BIO has been working toward policy solutions, including the next Farm Bill.

President Biden’s Wednesday: Meeting his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in San Francisco during a campaign trip to California, per CBS News.

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: Government funding negotiations continue before Saturday’s deadline, with a stopgap proposal moving forward in the Senate as the House eyes longer-term funding, The Washington Post reports.