This perspective was first shared in our Weekly View e-newsletter, which summarizes the week’s most significant drug pricing news. To subscribe, click here. 

While many of you are preparing to head to San Francisco for the organized chaos of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, we’ve spent the past week busily issuing four announcements that each mark a different moment along the timeline of four ongoing ICER assessments:

  1. We announced the initiation of a new assessment into treatments for hemophilia, requesting open input from patients, clinical experts and other stakeholders;
  2. We proposed a draft scope of a different ICER assessment, encouraging the public to provide feedback to help us hone how we will ultimately conduct that particular review;
  3. Incorporating public feedback from a preliminary public draft, this morning we published a revised Evidence Report that will serve as the basis of an upcoming public meeting, where patients will have the opportunity to speak directly to the manufacturers and insurers making consequential decisions around pricing and access for medicines that treat their condition; and
  4. We concluded a separate assessment yesterday with a Final Evidence Report summarizing our most recent public meeting, where an independent appraisal committee deliberated over the clinical evidence and the patient testimony, and a roundtable of experts recommended a set of policies to better achieve fair pricing and fair patient access for those therapies.

As illustrated through these four snapshots, ICER takes an iterative approach to each of our assessments, engaging with patients and the broader public across our entire eight-month review process. This transparency, along with an eagerness to incorporate constructive feedback along the way, improves the science behind our work. And just as importantly, it ensures we never lose sight of the patients who rely on the US health system to deliver both access and affordability to the treatments that can improve their lives.

While we’ve made significant improvements over the past few years to how we engage with patients, we’re well aware we can do more… That’s why we’re so excited to announce ICER is launching a search to hire our first ever Vice President of Patient Engagement.

If your experience fits this job description, and if you’re passionate about helping all Americans achieve sustainable access to high-value care, we’d love to have you join our team and make us better.