Accelerated Approval Prices Are Unrelated to Clinical Value, Study Says

  • Sep 22, 2022

    The manufacturers of many drugs granted accelerated approval by the FDA do not complete timely confirmatory trials of the drugs’ efficacy, according to a recent study published in the journal Health Affairs — meaning that the pricing for many accelerated approval drugs has nothing to do with their clinical efficacy. The study’s author tells AIS Health, a division of MMIT, that “the market doesn’t work very well” for drugs that have received accelerated approval, and “what it leads us to is overpaying at the beginning and underpaying, potentially, later.” 

    After a drug is granted accelerated approval, the FDA mandates that the drug be evaluated using confirmatory clinical trials. The accelerated approval designation is given to new, unproven drugs that could potentially meet a dire need for a new or more effective therapy to treat a terminal disease. The intention behind the confirmatory trial system is to make sure that the drug actually does what its developer says it will. 

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  • Peter Johnson

    Peter has worked as a journalist since 2011 and has covered health care since 2020. At AIS Health, Peter covers trends in finance, business and policy that affect the health insurance and pharma sectors. For Health Plan Weekly, he covers all aspects of the U.S. health insurance sector, including employer-sponsored insurance, Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage and the Affordable Care Act individual marketplaces. In Radar on Drug Benefits, Peter covers the operations of (and conflicts between) pharmacy benefit managers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, with a particular focus on pricing dynamics and market access. Before joining AIS Health, Peter covered transportation, public safety and local government for various outlets in Seattle, his hometown and current place of residence. He graduated with a B.A. from Colby College.

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