Indegene’s key takeaways from ISPOR 2023

The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Annual 2023 Conference was held in Boston, Massachusetts on May 7-10, where over 4,000 attendees from all over the globe came together to share their insights and learn from one another. This year’s theme, “Impacting Innovation, Value, and Healthcare Decision Making,” was captured by various educational sessions and poster presentations on the advancements in all things Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR).

This blog post will brief readers on key takeaways from thought leaders at the conference and provide an overview of Indegene’s experience and contribution to ISPOR 2023.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its implications on drug prices going forward was also the central focus of ISPOR’s opening plenary session. Key solutions for a very controversial part of the IRA, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Drug Price Negotiation Program, centered around the importance of CMS setting an initial defined process for negotiation, but also being inclusive of different stakeholders’ input to refine and update the process as it evolves. There is much to be worked out as this IRA process rolls out over the period from 2023 to 2030.

Although the level of interest in RWE in health technology assessments is growing, hesitation continues to exist due to the lack of defined criteria for what ‘quality’ RWE looks like. The additional insight and value that RWE can bring to treatment evaluations have potential, but there are many biases and a lack of confidence overall in real-world evidence findings.

Following this first short course was session 2, “Case Studies in Pharmaceutical/Biotech Pricing.” In this hands-on course, participants were split into groups and tasked with pricing a new product in a given country based on information presented to them which included background on the disease state, competitive landscape, clinical trial data, and analogues/benchmarks. These practical exercises allowed participants to share their knowledge and understanding from the “Elements” introductory course and expand on those concepts here. Attendees were very engaged because they had the ability to share their insights in a group setting in order to curate a pricing and reimbursement strategy.

Although this is the 21st year that these courses have been presented, they continue to remain fresh due to our hands-on experience along with the interaction with those attending and the continuing evolution of the market.

One of our posters, Market Access Trends of Pharmaceutical Products in the US, EU4 and UK, was selected for a poster tour which is reserved for high-quality posters. Only ~2% of all submitted posters are chosen for this experience. Poster tours allow for an interactive and engaged poster session akin to brief podium presentations. This poster examined trends in the time to standard reimbursed access following regulatory approval in the US, EU4 and UK. We noticed substantial differences in Europe based on trends analysis over time, and some differences across therapy areas as well. Continuing to monitor these trends and the factors shaping them is critical to understanding how market access is evolving.

If you have any questions regarding this general discussion or any specific topics, please get in touch.