Drug Safety Data Underscores Need for Pharmacovigilance
One in every three new drugs triggers side effects discovered only after Food and Drug Administration approval, new data reveals. And that statistic begs a crucial question: How can we really ensure patients’ safety in an age of sophisticated medications and accelerated approval processes?
Access Issues Loom Large at Munich Workshop on Biologics and Biosimilars
When should patients switch from one medicine to another for non-medical reasons? How can pharmacovigilance processes successfully monitor patients’ reactions to a medicine? And, perhaps most importantly, how do we ensure that patients are informed participants in decisions about their medication?
How Balanced Treatment, Innovation & Better Policy Can Help Solve the Opioid Epidemic
“Doctor, make my pain go away.” I hear this plea, in one form or another, from patients on a daily basis. Yet it presents physicians like me with a troubling conundrum.
Clinical Trials Awareness Week Focuses on Policy, Participation
What can the federal government do to raise clinical trials awareness? Maybe a lot, suggests one organization.
Health Plan Report Cards Reveal High Rejection Rate for Cholesterol Meds
Rejection is never pleasant. But for the 34,459 patients whose health plans refuse to cover advanced treatment for high cholesterol, it could also be deadly.
Tubing Mix-ups Pose New Dangers for Infants
Robin Rogers was 35 weeks pregnant when she began to suffer from significant vomiting and dehydration. She was admitted to the hospital near her home in Kansas. To correct her fluid and nutrition levels, Robin had two tubes placed: one, a feeding tube; the other a PICC line, often used to draw blood or deliver antibiotics.
How ICER’s Missteps Leave Access in Doubt For Atopic Dermatitis Patients
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review finds new treatments for atopic dermatitis to be cost effective – justifying health plan coverage for the medications. But methodological missteps invite questions about how secure patients’ access to the treatments will be.
Keeping Asthma Medication within Patients’ Reach
A new bureaucratic obstacle could make it even harder for asthma patients to get the medicine they need.
2017 National Policy and Advocacy Summit on Biologics and Biosimilars
On April 6, 2017, the Institute for Patient Access convened the second annual National Policy and Advocacy Summit on Biologics and Biosimilars in Washington, DC. Patients, government representatives, physicians and advocates explored throughout the day-long event how more biological options present both new challenges and new possibilities for treatment. The event was co-sponsored […]
Trials Data Raises Hopes in Cystic Fibrosis Community
Promising clinical trials data has excited patients with cystic fibrosis and their families. But will access barriers dash their hopes for more and better treatment options?
