ICER does a disservice to people
living with multiple sclerosis

Coconut Creek, Fl. – Recently, a self-appointed non-governmental
organization with various industry backings, the Institute for Clinical and
Economic Review (ICER) released a premature, flawed draft evidence report on
Novartis’s Mayzent® (siponimod) for the treatment of SPMS, which much like
ICER’s 2017 report on disease-modifying therapies for multiple sclerosis, was
not truly patient-centric and largely ignored comments by the patient MS
community (and even quoted a focus group of three patients). Instead of
comparing siponimod to other MS DMTs FDA-approved for relapsing forms of MS, it
compared siponimod to “best supportive care” (i.e. no disease
modifying treatment at all). Even the other DMTs discussed in the draft report
do not include many of those already used (and approved by the FDA) for the
treatment of active SPMS (such as, fingolimod, teriflunomide, dimethyl fumarate
and alemtuzumab).

“People living with MS face
many potential challenges,” according to Dr. Daniel Kantor, Founder and
President of the Medical Partnership 4 MS (MP4MS), “but fending off
inaccurate reports written by organizations with unclear backing, shouldn’t be
one of them.” As the largest physician and allied healthcare professional
organization comprised of those interested in caring for people with MS (as
opposed to large MS centers), MP4MS appreciates and congratulates the

U.S. FDA for clarifying the
definition of relapsing forms of MS. Unlike ICER, MP4MS accepts no industry
financial support.

Dr. Bhupendra Khatri, an active
member of MP4MS and an MS specialist from Milwaukee, WI said that “the
self-appointed Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is once again
doing a disservice to people living with chronic medical conditions by not
fully researching or vetting its (even draft) evidence reports.” On page
16 of ICER’s draft report, under the section Summary of Coverage Policies and Clinical Guidelines, it states
that “we were unable to identify any NCDs or LCDs relating to the use of DMTs
for MS.” Unfortunately, ICER has once again (originally, prior to being
corrected by organizations actually knowledgeable about MS, ICER incorrectly
referred to RRMS as “remitting-relapsing multiple sclerosis”)
demonstrated its naiveté regarding MS since Wisconsin Physicians Service
Insurance Corporation L34741, does in fact include multiple sclerosis in the
coverage determination of one of the intravenous medications, natalizumab.

Futhermore, ICER’s estimation of
the monitoring costs of the first dose observation (FDO) of a higher risk
cardiac group of siponimod patients woefully underestimates the true costs
associated with such monitoring. “Instead of calculating the cost of FDO,
ICER ignores the healthcare costs of monitoring a patient for 6 hours, and
simply inputs the cost of a follow-up office visit and two
electrocardiograms,” said Dr. David Brandes an MS specialist and MP4MS
member in Knoxville, TN. “People with MS deserve better, and MP4MS calls
upon the entire MS community to stand up to outside influences attempting to
limit access to care, ” said Dr. Kantor.

Article Provided by:  #MSViewsandNews

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