Nine widely-used medications
have experienced substantial price surges over the past 2 years, adding $5.1
billion to overall drug spending during this time period, according to a new
report.
The authors of the report, the
Institute of Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) claimed 7 of the 9 drugs were
lacking sufficient clinical evidence to support such price increases, but
several pharmaceutical manufacturers took issue with the methodology used in
the analysis.
Of the drugs listed, the ICER
indicated that lenalidomide and dimethyl fumarate were the only 2 with new
clinical evidence. In appendix published with the report, however, several
manufacturers challenged ICER's methodology and findings. For example, the
assessment only includes indications representing greater than 10% of use, not
accounting for smaller indications such as rare diseases that may reflect
improvements in net health benefit.