Recessionary times put tremendous pressure on everyone -- consumers,
companies, governments -- to spend less. All spending is
scrutinized. Even the seemingly recession-proof pharmaceutical
industry cannot escape this type of scrutiny.
For example, Celgene's multiple myeloma drug, Revlimid, has drawn
much criticism for its $260 per pill price tag, which equates to more
than $90,000 per year to treat a single patient. Even in times of
growth, pharmaceutical manufacturers struggle to justify such costs
for prescription drugs to consumers and insurers. In the midst of the
current recession, payor groups are turning up the heat on big pharma
to deliver more robust pharmacoeconomic and quality-of-life data as a
condition of formulary access and reimbursement approval, according
to a new report, "Outcomes-Based Pharmaceutical Pricing: Meeting
Stakeholder Needs" (PharmaPricingStrategy), from
Cutting Edge Information.
"Governments and third-party payors are requiring drug makers to
deliver more robust health outcomes data to inform their reimbursement
decision-making processes," says Elio Evangelista, Cutting Edge
Information research manager. "It is difficult to comprehend, but
apparently you can put a price on someone's health. The case of
Revlimid may not have helped matters either; it has definitely become
a two-way street in which payor groups are pushing back to get proof
that new drugs deliver marked improvements over existing products."
A detailed health outcomes analysis can be one of the most convincing
ways of proving a drug's effectiveness. "Outcomes-Based
Pharmaceutical Pricing: Meeting Stakeholder Needs" offers an in-depth
look at health outcomes studies. Loaded with primary and secondary
research, the report offers guidelines and timelines to help any
company perform the best health outcomes study possible. Download a
free brochure at PharmaPricingStrategy
The report contains 400+ metrics, and data focus on pricing teams'
structures, phase-by-phase pricing processes and methodology, and
spending and staffing resources. Metrics include the following:
-- Resource support, innovative versus me-too drugs
-- Cross-functional involvement in pricing decisions
-- Share of companies with dedicated pricing departments
-- Lifecycle entry and exit points for functions involved in the pricing
process
-- 2008 pricing budgets and headcounts, by company size
-- 2008 headcounts broken down by geographic market and by company size
PharmaPricingStrategy
View drug information on Revlimid.