Value Assessment and International Reference Pricing

The need to improve drug affordability remains one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement
in the US, with polling showing that a majority of both Democrats and Republicans want the
federal government to act to lower prescription drug prices. Policymakers from both parties
have advanced proposals to rein in drug costs, but there is no consensus on the primary
problem – patient out of pocket expenses versus costs to Medicare and other insurers – or on root causes and best approaches to address costs while maintaining the right amount and focus of incentives for future innovation.

In the context of this ongoing national policy discussion on Medicare negotiation, the Institute
for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) hosted a webinar for its Policy Leadership Forum in July 2021 to explore the potential advantages and disadvantages of international reference pricing and value assessment as mechanisms for informing or determining the fair price sought by Medicare. This document is a summary of that presentation.

September 2021

For more information, please contact info@icer.org.