ICER: Friend or Foe

Essentially, ICER, The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, determines an unbiased, independent recommended price for medicines produced by pharmaceutical companies. It determines the drug's value by testing the drug to answer four questions: ICER determines how well the drug works, how much would it save people, how much better it is from existing drugs, and how much would it cost to treat everyone who needs it. ICER coordinates with patients, doctors, and drug manufacturers to produce a value based price benchmark which reflects the drug's value to the manufacturer and the patient.

ICER's reports serve as a recommendation for drug manufacturers to consider. ICER's price gives a cost-effective benchmark that will help others if followed. ICER's approach rationalizes healthcare economics. However, a few problems arise when ICER's price is too high or too low. If ICER gives a very high price for a drug, this drug is very useful and deserves to be expensive, yet a patient in a fatal condition may not be able to afford this drug because his insurance company declines to pay for this expensive drug. On the other hand, if ICER's price is too low for the pharmaceutical company that produced the drug, the company will neglect ICER and sell their drug at whatever price they want which is likely very expensive. Therefore, ICER's work may lead to expensive drugs instead of lowering costs.