Dr Jane Barlow Outlines Progress With Milestone-Based Contracts

There’s more interest than ever in performance-based payments as they become less novel and frightening, said Jane F. Barlow, MD, MPH, MBA.

Transcript

Surveys by NEWDIGS show high interest by commercial payers in milestone-based contracts (MBCs), but the findings also cite barriers. Has there been any noteworthy progress in the past 12-18 months in overcoming the barriers to MBCs?

Well, yes, I would say that here has been progress. I think most notably is the progress around Medicaid best price, and the new approaches around bundled contracting and all of that that was laid out. I'm not the expert on that. But that's a removal of a significant barrier.

I work with pharmaceutical companies around market access on a day-to-day basis. And I think there's more interest than ever, around market access strategies that include performance-based payments. It might not replace rebates entirely, but as an adjunct or as a standalone. So, there's definitely more interest and more of these contracts going into play outside of gene and cell therapy, including in oncology, which we would not have talked about 3 to 5 years ago.

So, then I think momentum is building in that regard, and the barriers are being removed because people are figuring out how to do it. And it's becoming a little less novel and frightening to people who have trouble with uncertainty, and there's more adoption and interest.