AdverseEvents launches RxCost to determine economic impact of prescribing particular drugs

First-of-its-kind analysis enables payers and providers to determine total economic impact of prescribing particular drugs

AdverseEvents Inc., a leading healthcare informatics company, today launched RxCost, the first methodology to identify the total costs of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) associated with FDA-approved drugs. RxCost, a component of the AdverseEvents Explorer platform, applies proprietary analytics to adverse drug event and healthcare economic data to help clients determine a drug’s total medical cost and the long-term economic impact of prescribing a particular drug. RxCost enables clients to use this never-before-available data in drug evaluations and helps them choose safer, more cost-effective medications for patients.

Most formulary decisions are made using limited information—by considering safety and efficacy profiles based predominately on pre-approval clinical trial data. If a drug shows comparable or superior efficacy versus another, and costs less, it is likely to be preferred. Unfortunately, these analyses ignore the real-world reporting of ADRs once a drug is in use among broad patient populations. On average, these real-world reports, which are essential in discovering new drug risks that had not been identified in pre-market drug testing, uncover three-times more ADRs than clinical trials. RxCost provides the most complete representation of a drug’s true cost by analyzing these real-world data and presenting the costs of actual adverse side effects of a drug (e.g., injury, hospital admission/readmission, disability and/or death).

“Prior to the creation of RxCost, the total downstream medical costs of prescription drugs remained unknown,” said Brian Overstreet, CEO of AdverseEvents. “As a result, managed care insurers, hospitals and health systems, and agencies such as Medicare, have been selecting drugs without the benefit of incorporating up-to-date ADR data. The ability to quickly obtain, easily review and proactively act on these RxCost data will dramatically improve patient outcomes and lower system-wide costs.”

AdverseEvents estimated avoidable serious events and negative patient outcomes from drug adverse events cost the U.S. healthcare system $25 billion in 2013. Yet, to date, the lack of actionable and independent adverse event and outcomes costing data has limited the development of strategies to mitigate this enormous cost burden. As part of AdverseEvents’ full solutions suite of data, analytics and insight, RxCost ensures that healthcare decision makers will now have this vital information during the drug purchasing and formulary management processes.

RxCost:

• reveals costs associated with serious adverse event and outcomes per patient;

• identifies individual ADR’s that are driving increased costs;

• compares cost per patient with the average cost of other drugs in an indication, class or mechanism of action; and

• shows both on- and off-label costs for a real-world financial picture, not just the limited scope provided by pre-approval clinical trials.

Source: http://www.adverseevents.com/