How value-based payment agreements can boost access

Today, we take a deep dive into value-based payment arrangements and FNIH’s new program to define and treat Parkinson’s, plus more news about mpox, the Cancer Moonshot, and the DNC. (709 words, 3 minutes, 32 seconds)

How value-based payment agreements can boost patient access

Innovative payment agreements can increase patient access to transformative new treatments while helping states control their Medicaid costs, Bio.News reports.

Why it matters: “Innovation needs to not just happen on the research and development side, it needs to happen throughout all drug delivery aspects, and that includes reimbursement and payment,” according to Jack Geisser, BIO’s Senior Director, Healthcare Policy, Medicaid, and State Initiatives.

Creative payment arrangements include:

• Funding single-course curative treatments, such as revolutionary cell and gene therapies, which can have a high up-front cost but save money over time.
• Value-based payment arrangements, in which Medicaid programs only pay for treatments that prove effective.

How legislation could help: BIO supports the Medicaid VBPs for Patients (MVP) Act and creative state-level legislation. The vast unmet medical need among Medicaid patients and limits in state budgets make state Medicaid programs a natural place to launch innovative payment arrangements.

The bottom line: Transformative therapies, including cell and gene therapies, offer new treatment options for patients, often for conditions with limited or no treatment options available, but payment is a challenge.

What they’re saying: “We believe strongly that these agreements are going to get patients the drugs they need faster and improve access and the quality of health overall,” says Geisser. 

Read more at Bio.News.

How FNIH is working with patients to define and treat Parkinson’s

Patients are central to research into Parkinson’s and related disorders conducted by a new Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) program, Bio.News reports.

The program: The Foundation for NIH’s Parkinson’s Disease and Related Disorders (AMP PDRD) program is the 12th FNIH program focused on a specific type of ailment.

Why it matters: “As patients living with this disease, we really are experts in this disease, regardless of whether we have a medical background or scientific background or not,” says Soania Mathur, a patient advocate and retired physician who has had Parkinson’s for 25 years.

The goal: The research would help identify treatments by defining several disorders with similar pathologies—including Lewy body dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, and multiple system atrophy—to “develop a deeper understanding of what Parkinson’s disease is, but also of what Parkinson’s disease is not,” says FNIH’s Steve Hoffmann.

“There remains such a broad heterogeneity of disease types,” explains Hoffmann. “As patients often say, My arthritis is not your arthritis. My Parkinson’s is not your Parkinson’s. That patient voice has become more and more important, not only in the early design of these programs, but as we go through the process and welcome in partners and experts at every level.”

Read more at Bio.News.

What Else to Know This Week

WHO declares mpox state of emergency. A highly virulent strain of mpox is driving a 22% mpox increase in Africa. The deadlier clade I virus has been a problem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for over a decade, and more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths have been reported this year. Vaccines work, and production is being scaled up, but distribution is a challenge. Read more at Bio.News.

Cancer Moonshot, ARPA-H targets early detection. President Biden announced $150 million in additional funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Cancer Moonshot program. ARPA-H recently announced the Platform Optimizing SynBio for Early Intervention and Detection in Oncology (POSEIDON) program to develop at-home tests providing early screening for multiple types of cancer. “POSEIDON aims to create a future in which any adult can take a simple, over-the-counter test to screen for and detect 30+ cancers at Stage I, when they are still localized, to drastically improve the chances of curative treatment and survival,” said ARPA-H’s Ross Uhrich.

“Health care costs keep rising, but biopharma is not the enemy,” a recent letter to Cambridge Day explains. “Biopharma has been credited with turning deadly diseases into chronic conditions, and with developing cures for patients who would otherwise fill hospital beds,” writes Neil Kairen, managing director at Biotech Value Advisors. “We must remember where around 90 percent of our health insurance costs go—to hospital system spending that is increasing perpetually with little transparency to patients—while drug costs decrease over time,” he says.

Beltway Report: What's Ahead in Washington

With Congress in recess, Washington will be watching Chicago, where the Democratic Convention, running today through Thursday, is set to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s candidate for president. Here’s the schedule for the week.