BIO released a set of voluntary principles that include a set of commitments by the trade group and its member companies to support "comprehensive and sustainable solutions to improve patient access to and affordability of innovative medicines." The principles include a commitment to work with payers, healthcare providers and policy makers to maximize patient benefit and drive "smarter" healthcare spending via "value-based and outcomes-based contracting arrangements, patient adherence and education programs, alternative financing and payment mechanisms, or other similar options."
Thee BIO PRINCIPLES ON THE VALUE OF BIOPHARMACEUTICALS begins as follows:
BIO member companies are committed to investing in, developing, and delivering innovative biopharmaceuticals that are transforming how we treat and cure patients with once-devastating diseases – giving them hope, extending survival, and saving millions of lives. The value that these innovative medicines offer to patients and their caregivers, the healthcare system, and society at large is truly a game-changer. The critical issue is how best to ensure that these medicines are accessible to patients in need, while continuing to foster the risk-taking required to sustain the promise of future treatments and cures. This issue is the subject of vigorous public policy debate, and we welcome it.
Per a report in BioCentury, Ron Cohen, president and CEO of Acorda Therapeutics Inc. and chairman of BIO, the trade group is putting the final touches on a media and lobbying campaign emphasizing the value of biopharmaceuticals and the high costs of other healthcare products and services. BIO's new principles also include a commitment to work with policy makers to "remove legal barriers that currently limit the ability to engage in value-based contracting and communications."
Stakeholders also told BioCentury that regulatory barriers to outcomes-based pricing contracts include FDA's prohibition on discussion of off-label uses of drugs and agency regulations that prevent companies from working with payers prior to approval to develop creative payment strategies. The FDA has listed these issues as key topics for the agency to address in its 2016 guidance agenda process.
