COA’s Nick Ferreyros Addresses Oncology Policy Changes and the IRA

We are in the midst of a transformative time in oncology that could also be a little scary if you are not prepared, said Nicolas Ferreyros, managing director of policy, advocacy, and communications, Community Oncology Alliance.

Transcript

How is the value-based care policy landscape changing in oncology?

There's a lot of transformation that's happening. It's very evident from the EOM [Enhancing Oncology Model] to the OCM [Oncology Care Model], all value-based care contracts, not to mention all of the work happening with the inflation Reduction Act [IRA]. So, there’s a really transformative time right now in oncology that is both exciting and, frankly, could be a little scary if you're not prepared.

How will the IRA continue to reverberate across the drug price negotiation landscape?

The Inflation Reduction Act list of drugs that are first up for negotiations—and it's important to remember this is just the first phase; there's plenty more to be—was just released. There's only 1 oncology drug on that list. But what's really interesting about that list is trying to understand how it is they came up with what to include on that. You have several drugs that seem to defy the guidelines that CMS put around what drugs they were going to select for negotiations.

So there's a lot of questions out there in the industry, but also with manufacturers, about how that list came to be and really what the deciding factors are, because fundamentally, if you're going to do such a program as the IRA that is going to completely introduce a whole new factor into drug development, drug payment, and sort of our entire ecosystem, I think we need and deserve clarity on what that is going to be and how those drugs are going to be selected. Because without any real clarity, without any real definition and guidelines and rules, and the same kind of transparency that the government asks of all of the other health care entities, we can't proceed in any informed manner.

I think you're going see a lot of challenges to that list of drugs that were selected. I think we're going see a lot of a lot of discussion around how that happens. And remember, this is just phase 1. There is a lot of to go here and we have many years, not to mention 6 or 7 lawsuits that are ongoing around these drugs and any other ones that might come up.