Roman Casciano*, Matthew Brougham, Ulrich Neumann and Bridget Doherty
Background: The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) recently published its 3rd annual Unsupported Price Increase (UPI) report and positions it as a guide for policy making on prescription drug spending. Lawmakers across the US have shown interest in the UPI approach as a potential tool to optimize healthcare resource allocation.
Methods: The latest UPI methodology and its changes were explicitly documented and then compared and contrasted with the author’s understanding and experience of sound scientific method and logic.
Results: The UPI report’s findings are based on a partial product selection and the rejection of high-quality evidence, offering healthcare decision makers misleading guidance on the value for money of the assessed products.
Conclusion: Our evaluation shows that significant methodological flaws mar the UPI report’s utility and that it is a tool that may cause unintended consequences that healthcare decision makers and patients in the US can ill afford.
Published Date: 2023-09-29; Received Date: 2022-11-22
