Price and reimbursement of medicines when new indications are approved: the results of a survey on ISPOR Italy Rome Chapter members

Abstract

Multi-indication pricing models for medicines and some international impact evidence are available in the literature. Data on the Italian context are more limited. This paper illustrates the results of a study aimed at gathering the opinion on this topic of experts, members of the ISPOR Italy Rome Chapter. The opinion was collected through a structured questionnaire, validated by two potential responders, and administered online in the period October/July 2022. There were 45 responders (20% of the members); 67% of responders work in pharmaceutical companies and 13% in consultancy firms. The remainder belongs to regulators/payers and universities. The survey highlighted a preference for (i) non-automatic models, as automatic approaches are mainly based on price cuts/discount increases in relation to an increase in volumes, (ii) an “indication-based-pricing” model (where prices are differentiated by indication through discounts/risk sharing agreements), since it is more consistent with a value-based approach, even if more complex to manage, (iii) a mix of discounts/agreements according to existing evidence. The opinion collected is consistent with the opinions available in the literature, but not consistent with the Italian trend, where, compared to the past, a blended approach is prevailing. A blended pricing envisages a renegotiation of the single price for all indications, essentially based on a change in the discount. Our hope is that in the future the experts’ opinion will be taken into consideration and that a targeted indication-based-pricing will be adopted again.