Posted by Michael Wonder on 06 Aug 2019
A watchdog group sets aside emotions to assess drugs’ value. Patients say their lives are more than a number.
2 August 2019 - Health economists walk a precarious tightrope: their analyses are quantitative and, presumably, emotion-free. But health care is intensely personal — and often, intensely emotional.
That tension between between quantitative analyses and lived experiences was on full display at a recent meeting of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a nonprofit that tasks itself with determining what a drug is worth based on factors like how well it works and how much it helps patients.
ICER had set out to review evidence for three drugs that treat — but do not cure — Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare and fatal disease that causes affected people’s muscles to deteriorate over time.
