Source: CEPOP
CEPOP stakeholders, in a letter to the President of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), responded to a recent ICER draft evidence report entitled “Abuse-Deterrent Formulation of Opioids in Pain Management: Effectiveness and Value.” The letter from CEPOP addresses concerns raised by the draft report. In the letter, the representatives of CEPOP state: “[W]e believe that abuse deterrent formulations of opioids (ADFs) can interrupt the ‘abuse trajectory’ for these medications by preventing manipulating for nasal and intravenous abuse. This is true whether the drug is obtained by prescription or is diverted to an unintended user. CEPOP supports expanding access to ADFs in order to reduce prescription drug abuse and its consequences. Unfortunately, the Draft Report could significantly impede this access by encouraging health plans to undervalue the benefits of ADFs in terms of reducing patient harm and protecting society from the impact of diversion.”
The letter goes on to state specific concerns and urges ICER “to either suspend this project until more definitive data can be developed for the new ADF medications or, at a minimum, to reconsider incorporating a fair assessment of the broader societal benefit of these technologies as was performed in Canada.”