Yesterday’s forum
on rising drug costs at the Capitol included the expected messages from the
expected sources but the real news was in the second panel that offered
solutions. The CT State Medical Society and the State Comptroller’s Office
sponsored the forum. Dr. Jacobs, President of CSMS, laid out the
problem. One medication that supports the immune system against cancer
costs $150,000/year and another combination treatment for cancer costs
$300,000/year. The cost of tetracycline, an old, very cheap antibiotic, rose
over 75-fold in two years. Drug costs are driving half of patients to skip
their meds; failure to take medications causes $125,000 deaths/year and up to
10% of hospitalizations. Representatives of Pharma, Pfizer, UConn School of
Pharmacy and CVS laid out their perspectives in the first panel, which got a
bit testy at points. But the second panel was helpful. Dan Ollendorf of ICER outlined their independent comparative
effectiveness assessments and how they define value-based benchmark prices for
new drugs. In addition to traditional quality-adjusted life years (QALYs),
ICER’s analysis also includes new drugs’ avoided treatments (e.g. fewer
transplants), breakthrough potential, population health impact and the tension
between long term health benefit and short term budget impact. Many payers are
using ICER’s analyses as a starting point for drug pricing. We also heard from Peter
Michaud, MD about Maine’s successful
academic detailing program providing independent information to prescribers
about the effectiveness and the costs of medication options to treat a dozen
common health problems. We wanted to hear more about keeping costs under
control but then the
lights went out (just saying).
