BOSTON, April 16, 2020 – The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has announced the appointment of Yvette Venable as the organization’s first-ever Vice President of Patient Engagement. Ms. Venable is an accomplished global health care leader, with more than 20 years’ experience in patient advocacy, health policy, and biopharma communications. In this new role, she will lead ICER’s enhanced patient engagement program, liaise with patient organizations during each ICER assessment, and ensure that patient and consumer voices are driving ICER’s processes and decisions.
“We are thrilled to have Yvette join ICER in this senior role,” noted Steven D. Pearson, MD, MSc, President of ICER. “Having spent so many years advocating for fair patient access to treatments for cancer and rare diseases, she will help empower patients and their families to fully participate in every stage of our work. And just as important, she will hold ICER accountable from the inside, ensuring we continue to learn from the lived experiences of patients and caregivers as we march toward our ultimate goal of helping everyone achieve affordable access to the care they need at a price that also sustains future medical innovation.”
Prior to joining ICER, Ms. Venable led patient access and advocacy functions within Kyowa Kirin, Baxalta, Roche, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Across a range of serious diseases including cancer, hemophilia, and other ultra-rare conditions, she championed new ways of making drug development more patient-centric, and she worked extensively with advocates around the world to help patients achieve access to health care. Before entering the biopharma industry, Ms. Venable held increasingly senior health care roles within three global communications agencies: Edelman, Fleishman-Hillard, and Ogilvy. She graduated with a degree in journalism from Drake University.
“Having worked with patients and patient organizations around the world, I have seen firsthand how the status quo in health care is failing patients,” said Ms. Venable. “In recent years, though, ICER has held a mirror up to the broken health system, exposing both unfair drug prices and unfair insurance coverage, and giving patients a long-needed seat at the table. I’m excited to roll up my sleeves and help ICER grow these efforts, and to further integrate patient voices into the process of health technology assessment.”
ICER is continuing to expand its team. For a full listing of open positions – including Health Economist, Research Lead, and Deputy Chief Medical Officer – please visit ICER’s website.
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.