In Landmark International Program, HTA Agencies Around the World Access ICER’s Customizable COVID-19 Cost-Effectiveness Model

— Leveraging ICER’s new cloud-based Interactive Modeler platform, Quebec’s HTA agency has used the COVID-19 model to inform Ministerial recommendations on remdesivir; other HTA agencies and research groups in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and South Africa plan to access the model —

— ICER’s COVID-19 model now available to all interested international HTA groups at no charge —

— In November, ICER will launch this new platform with additional ICER models for use by US payers, life science companies, and other stakeholders —

BOSTON, October 9, 2020 – The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) today announced a first-of-its-kind program that will enable all international health technology assessment (HTA) agencies to gain access to ICER’s cost-effectiveness models on a cloud-based platform that allows customization of model assumptions and inputs. The goal of this initiative is to enhance the transparency of HTA assessments around the world, enable access to ICER models for all HTA groups, including those from lower and middle income countries, and to enable the international HTA community to inform governmental decisions about drug pricing and coverage with economic model results that are rapidly available, based on the best available science, and locally tailored to reflect diverse health systems.

ICER will provide access to its economic models through a new cloud-based platform called the ICER Interactive Modeler™. The first model available is the COVID-19 model that ICER developed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of remdesivir and other treatments for COVID-19. In collaboration with its academic collaborators, ICER will make additional models from previous, ongoing, and future reports available within the Interactive Modeler, which is scheduled to launch in November for payers, life science companies, patient groups, and other stakeholders.

International HTA organizations already participating in this program include the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Australia’s Technical Assessment and Access Division (a division of the Australian Government Department of Health), the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH), Quebec’s Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS), and MOSAIC, a South African health economic modeling collective.

Last month, INESSS cited its use of ICER’s COVID-19 model to inform the Institute’s conditional reimbursement recommendation for remdesivir to Quebec’s Minister of Health and Social Services. Within the ICER Interactive Modeler, INESSS was able to evaluate and adjust key model inputs – e.g., clinical improvement and mortality assumptions – to match the province’s population, cost structure, and approved indication.

“Because many new drugs are launched first in the US, ICER is often the first HTA organization to perform a formal assessment — including independent economic modeling — of a new drug.” said Steven D. Pearson, MD, MSc, President of ICER. “We believe international HTA agencies will benefit from having access to ICER models in a customizable platform that allows those agencies to adapt the model inputs to reflect local conditions.

“The situation with remdesivir and COVID-19 is a case in point. We have had extensive interest among HTA groups in utilizing our COVID model, and we are proud that the Interactive Modeler can now make that model — and all the others that we will soon upload — available and accessible to lower and middle income countries as well as HTA agencies in major European and other markets. This new international program is a significant step forward for transparent value assessments, and it’s just the first step as we move soon to launch this platform with additional models and other digitized ICER material in the US.”

The ICER Interactive Modeler is one component of ICER Analytics™, a new cloud-based platform that facilitates the use of ICER’s evidence reports and underlying analyses by decision-makers as they develop medical policy, establish drug pricing, and negotiate drug reimbursement. Subscribers will have access to ICER’s price benchmarks, cost-effectiveness results, comparative clinical effectiveness judgments, patient testimony about important non-clinical considerations, policy recommendations, and the underlying economic models. While all of ICER’s reports will remain in the public domain as downloadable PDFs from our website, ICER Analytics comprises two tools geared toward frequent users of ICER’s work:

• The ICER Evidence Compendium™ is a rapidly searchable and sortable summary of results from ICER’s library of evidence reports. In addition to the clinical effectiveness ratings and pricing benchmarks for each drug and indication, the Evidence Compendium allows users to enter their own pricing to compare to ICER price benchmark. The Evidence Compendium also contains exclusive curated material and videos, including key comparative clinical effectiveness judgments, report highlight and patient testimony on value considerations extending beyond clinical trial data, and perspectives on potential coverage and pricing policy recommendations.
• The ICER Interactive Modeler is a modifiable rendering of the actual ICER analytic model used to produce a specific evidence report. The Interactive Modeler provides users the ability to analyze key aspects of individual economic models produced for ICER Evidence Reports, vary parameter inputs to the model based on a specific patient sub-population or unique cost structure, and publish alternative pricing benchmarks based on updated assumptions and new evidence.

ICER Analytics is currently being used on a trial basis by several leading insurers, health systems, and pharmacy benefit managers, as well as major pharmaceutical companies including Biogen, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi. Subscribers currently have access to the Evidence Compendium; the Interactive Modeler will formally launch in November 2020 with several models, and additional models will be frequently added thereafter.

ICER Analytics is available through ICER and FormularyDecisions (AmerisourceBergen). Any potential users interested in learning more are encouraged to complete this survey.

About ICER

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is an independent non-profit research institute that produces reports analyzing the evidence on the effectiveness and value of drugs and other medical services. ICER’s reports include evidence-based calculations of prices for new drugs that accurately reflect the degree of improvement expected in long-term patient outcomes, while also highlighting price levels that might contribute to unaffordable short-term cost growth for the overall health care system.

ICER’s reports incorporate extensive input from all stakeholders and are the subject of public hearings through three core programs: the California Technology Assessment Forum (CTAF), the Midwest Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council (Midwest CEPAC), and the New England Comparative Effectiveness Public Advisory Council (New England CEPAC). These independent panels review ICER’s reports at public meetings to deliberate on the evidence and develop recommendations for how patients, clinicians, insurers, and policymakers can improve the quality and value of health care. For more information about ICER, please visit ICER’s website.