NPC Takes Issue With ICER's Mischaracterization of Funding Sources

The National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC) takes exception to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review’s (ICER) continued portrayal of us as an organization that is supportive of ICER's value assessment process. To be clear, NPC’s engagement with ICER is not an endorsement of that organization nor its value assessment framework.
 
We partner with a number of organizations because we believe that collaboration among stakeholders is important to fostering solutions to improving our health care system and patient outcomes. In fact, NPC has been a member of ICER since 2008, when it was focused on evidence synthesis and methods.
 
Since then, ICER’s mission, orientation and funding for new programs, such as value assessment frameworks, have changed significantly. Pointing to NPC’s initial funding of ICER to rebut current and ongoing concerns regarding funding sources is not appropriate.
 
Recently, NPC has been more actively engaged in efforts to evolve ICER’s value assessment framework into one that is more patient-centered and methodologically sound. However, much work remains to be done, and as an organization with an expertise in research methods, NPC is uniquely qualified to provide technical and constructive feedback to ICER.
 
See NPC’s comments on ICER’s framework, our set of guiding practices that can serve as a guidepost for framework developers, our review of existing frameworks and register for our September 29 conference, “Assessing Value: Promise and Pitfalls.”