— Report will be subject of Midwest CEPAC meeting in January 2026; Draft Scoping Document open to public comment until June 10, 2025 —

BOSTON, May 20, 2025 – The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) announced today that it will assess the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of cytisinicline (Achieve Life Sciences) for smoking cessation.

The assessment will be publicly discussed during a meeting of the Midwest CEPAC in January 2026, where the independent evidence review panel will deliberate and vote on evidence presented in ICER’s report.

ICER’s website provides timelines of key posting dates and public comment periods for this assessment.

Consistent with ICER’s process for announcing new assessments, we have spent the past five weeks conducting outreach and engaging with targeted stakeholders, including relevant patient groups, the manufacturer, and clinical experts. Based on this preliminary cross-stakeholder engagement, today ICER has posted a Draft Scoping Document outlining how we plan to conduct this assessment.   

All interested stakeholders are encouraged to submit comments and suggested refinements to the scope to ensure all perspectives are adequately considered. Comments can be submitted by email to publiccomments@icer.org and must be received by 5 PM ET on June 10, 2025. Please submit public comments as a Word document in the following format:

  • 12-point Times New Roman font
  • Three-page maximum (not including references or appendices)

ICER’s Patient Portal and Manufacturer Engagement Guide provide additional guidance for submitting public comments, including suggestions for what types of information may be most useful.

In addition to comments on the scope, ICER also welcomes submissions from stakeholders on examples of low-value care practices within this clinical area. These submissions will inform a report section focused on strategies to reduce waste and preserve resources for high-value, potentially higher-cost treatments.

More information is available in the scoping document.

Following the public comment period, a revised scoping document will be posted on or about June 30, 2025.

About ICER

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is an independent, non-profit research institute that conducts evidence-based reviews of health care interventions, including prescription drugs, other treatments, and diagnostic tests. In collaboration with patients, clinical experts, and other key stakeholders, ICER analyzes the available evidence on the benefits and risks of these interventions to measure their value and suggest fair prices. ICER also regularly reports on the barriers to care for patients and recommends solutions to ensure fair access to prescription drugs. For more information about ICER, please visit www.icer.org.