Could it be a Typo?
I recently came across a letter from a Vice President of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chairman David Obey (Committee on Appropriations). The subject of the letter was "comparative clinical effectiveness of medical treatments and services." I quote, "While we support funding in the economic recovery package to conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research, we believe the current proposal can be improved. We request that Congress clarify its intent by including clear language that the government will not use comparative effectiveness information to influence coverage or payment recommendations." (emphasis added)
Is this possible? Is this really the view of NAM's membership? Or is it the view of pharmaceutical manufacturers?
We view clinical effectiveness research to hold great promise and to be an important "public interest" function for the government. It is certainly superior to the FDA's almost unbelievable use of a "lesser harm" standard in drug approval. This standard allows less effective drugs to be approved for market use as long as they aren't too much lesser. Does that sound like the kind of drugs you want to buy? Well, combine it with slick advertising, and that is what people do every day.
We can't expect the average consumer to follow clinical effectiveness research. They need the help of coverage sponsors to influence their purchase decisions through plan design and provider payment schedules. The better, more independent data we have to do so, the better off we will all be.