Risk-sharing agreements for innovative drugs

Excerpt

The concept of risk-sharing has often been discussed and sometimes as a new form of contractual agreement between payers and the pharmaceutical industry for setting the value of an innovation conditional to demonstration of its effectiveness and efficiency in real life. The most prominent application of this concept in recent years has been the agreement in the United Kingdom between NICE and the industry for the use of β-interferons and glatiramere for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. In this case the industry was asked to demonstrate its claims in terms of the impact of the treatment on quality of life and of its efficiency, measured by an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio in pounds sterling per quality-adjusted life-years. Apart from this obvious example, however, the concept has until now had only very few other applications, unless one includes under this term the price-volume agreements that are used in countries in which prices are regulated. …