Seven of the 10 drugs most likely to be selected for Medicare price negotiation were rated as having low clinical value by health technology assessment organizations outside the U.S., a study published in JAMA found.
Researchers analyzed how health technology assessment agencies in Canada, France and Germany rated top-selling single-source drugs in Medicare in 2020. Of the top 50 drugs, 27 were rated as having a low-added therapeutic rating across countries.
Most of these top-selling drugs are used to treat diabetes, cancer and respiratory diseases.
Of the top 10 highest-selling drugs, which analysts predict will be CMS' first picks for Medicare price negotiation in 2023, seven were assessed as having a low therapeutic benefit by at least one country.
Therapeutic benefit assessments are often used in countries outside the U.S. as a starting point for negotiations.
The study, published April 18, was authored by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Aaron Kesselheim, MD, chair of the Brigham division of pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacoeconomics, said the new price negotiation model gives Medicare an opportunity to stop paying excessively for drugs that do not offer clear benefits over less expensive treatment.
"Our results suggest that Medicare has lots of bases on which to negotiate so top-selling drugs are, at a minimum, not priced higher than therapeutic alternatives," Dr. Kesselheim said in a news release shared with Becker's.
Read the full study here.