Pharmerit’s staff contributions to ISPOR 12th annual European congress: 

Podium Presentations

Session IV, Monday October 26th, 16:30 - 17:30

Modeling methods - handling uncertainty: Handling uncertainty in case of combined enpoints (MO9)

Modeling methods - handling uncertainty: Comparison of three meta-models for uncertainty analysis (MO12)

Poster Presentations

Session I, Sunday October 25th, 17:30 - 18:30

Cancer: Comparison of the cost-effectiveness of zoledronic acid therapy for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients with bone metastases in French, German and the UK populations (PCN74)

Cancer: Cost-effectiveness assessment of zoledronic acid (ZOL) relative to placebo (PBO) in the treatment of lung cancer patients with skeletal metastases in five European countries (PCN78)

Session II, Monday October 26th, 17:30 - 18:30

Systemic disorders/conditions: Costs and cost drivers of immune tolerance therapy (ITI) in patients with hemophilia and inhibitors (PSY20)

Cardiovascular disease: Cost-effectiveness of atorvastatin in acute coronary syndrome patients in the Netherlands (PCV119)

Session III, Tuesday October 27th, 11:00 - 12:00

Methods and concepts: Serotype-specific transmission dynamics of invasive pneumococcal disease after vaccination with 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PMC34)

Diabetes/Endocrine disorders: Assessing the burden of acromegaly: a review of health-related quality of life and economics (PDB54)

Infection: Cost-effectiveness of atazanavir/r vs. lopinavir/r in treament naive HIV patients in Spain (PIN56)

Pharmerit is pleased to tell that its research in pneumococcal vaccination has been published in Vaccine. The manuscript describes a transmission dynamic epidemiologic model characterizing the decline in pneumococcal disease incidence in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations in the United States after wide-spread infant and toddler vaccination with the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (link to PDF).

We are very pleased to announce that our international team has expanded with 5 new employees. Ning Gu, Xiang Ji, and John Carter have recently joined our Pharmerit team in Bethesda, MD in the respective positions of Senior Scientist, Research Analyst, and Research Analyst. Harald Heemstra and Chrissy Tan will join our Dutch research team November 1st in the position of respectively Senior Research Consultant and Junior Research Consultant, and  finally Najida Begum will become a Research Consultant Health Economics & Outcomes Research at our UK office in York.  We are delighted to have them on board. Ning, Xiang, John, Harald, Chrissy & Najida welcome to our team!

Due to the continuously growing demand, Pharmerit is looking to expand its team of research consultants in the UK office in York and to recruit a Junior Research Consultant. Please click here to read more about this interesting and challenging job opportunity.

Recent clinical findings, reported in the Guardian, indicated that early treatment of aggressive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with an anti-TNF agent caused on-going underlying joint damage to be almost completely halted. The impact of a medication on both current disease symptoms and on its natural progression over time can yield substantial economic benefits, however modeling such a double impact is a relatively sophisticated task and subsequently very rare in published economic models. 

Nevertheless, this element of underlying latent disease progression has been incorporated in Pharmerit's RA health economic model recently developed by  Professor Ben van Hout, PhD, Scientific Director of Pharmerit. This RA model incorporates several other additional disease characteristics, providing a template to assess the value of treatments which target more than one aspect of RA disease activity. A cost-effectiveness analysis using the RA model was presented at the 2009 EULAR conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Pharmerit staff members have contributed to a research poster to be presented at the Annual European Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) 2009 in Copenhagen, June 10-13. Presented as part of the Epidemiology, Health Services and Outcome research session, the poster is titled: “Cost-effectiveness of adalimumab in combination with methotrexate versus methotrexate monotherapy based on results from Premier using data on radiographic progression”.

The UK NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination assessed Pharmerit's cost-effectiveness analysis: "Oral antiplatelet therapy in secondary prevention of cardiovascular events: an assessment from the payer's perspective." This study concluded that Aspirin was cost-effective for primary or secondary prevention in patients at high risk of cardiovascular events, clopidogrel for symptomatic cardiovascular disease or acute coronary syndrome (for up to two years), and aspirin with dipyridamole for the secondary prevention of stroke (for up to five years).

The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination concluded that this economic evaluation was based on a robust methodology and that the authors’ conclusions were valid and appropriate. The assessment is publically available in the NHS Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED).

Pharmerit staff members have have contributed an economic evaluation component to a paediatric influenza transmission model which will be presented at the 27th Annual meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) in Brussels, June 9-13. A research poster will be presented titled: "Community-wide benefits of pediatric influenza vaccination: insights from the modeling of influenza transmission".

Pharmerit is pleased to announce that its research into insomnia has been published in Sleep. The manuscript quantifies the health economic consequences of treating adult patients with primary chronic insomnia with Eszopiclone or placebo. The analysis was conducted using a health economic model based on patient-level data (n = 824) from a 6-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial, combined with data from a claims database and published literature. (link to abstract)

Stephanie Thurston will be delivering a short format presentation titled “Too Much Information? Using Priors from Published Meta-Analyses to Inform a Cost-Effectiveness Model of Intensive-Dose Statin Therapy in Acute Coronary Syndrome Patients” as part of a cost-effectiveness analysis session at the 2009 International Health Economics Association (iHEA) Congress in Beijing.

The figure below shows the percentage of pharmacoeconomic dossiers submitted to the Dutch Health Authorities from 2002 to 2009 for outpatient drugs per company plus the grading of those pharmacoeconomic dossiers. Pharmerit conducted 17.5% of all dossiers submitted to the Dutch Health Authorities, and of these 71% were positively evaluated. The Dutch Health Authorities score the dossiers as one of the following: “not adequately substantiated”, “weakly substantiated”, “moderately substantiated” and “adequately substantiated”. Only the score “not adequately substantiated” may result in negative advice on reimbursement.

Pharmerit’s Staff Contributions to ISPOR 14th Annual Meeting:

Pharmerit will be present at the upcoming ISPOR US event in Orlando, May 16-20th. The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) 14th Annual International Meeting offers an ideal opportunity for sharing knowledge and new developments, and discussing them with others in the field of health economics and outcomes research. Are you interested in the kind of research we are conducting? Please visit our booth (no. 84-85), or visit one of the Pharmerit-sponsored Internet Access Stations.

We are pleased to report that Howard Tag, of Tag & Associates, Inc. -- the US-based reimbursement specialty consulting firm based in Alexandria, VA  and US reimbursement partner of Pharmerit -- will be a faculty on the panel “Drug Payment Methods Landscape” to be held on April 17, 2009 in Orlando, FL at the 21st Annual Meeting & Showcase of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP). Along with Howard Tag, panel participants will discuss the rapidly changing drug payment methodologies in the US, including elimination of average wholesale price (AWP) as a payment benchmark.

To learn more about Tag & Associates, Inc., click here to visit their website or contact Howard Tag via phone at 703.683.5333 or email

Pharmerit researchers will present two talking posters at the upcoming 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association to be held in Chicago, April 25-30. Our staff will present studies on the health economic benefits of avoiding skeletal-related events in patients with prostate and lung cancer from the perspective of 5 European countries: France, Germany, United Kingdom, Portugal and the Netherlands.

Pharmerit is pleased to tell that its research in schizophrenia has been published in BMC Health Services Research. The manuscript quantifies the possible health economic consequences of generic substitution in patients with schizophrenia who are treated with risperidone in Germany. (link to PDF)

We are glad to announce that Marta Kikena joined our US Pharmerit team in Bethesda, MD, in the position of Junior Research Consultant. We are delighted to have her expertise on board. Marta, welcome to our team!

Pharmerit will be present at the upcoming Pharma Pricing and Market Access Outlook 2009 in London, April 29-30th. Topics that will be discussed during congress workshops and podium sessions include an overview of European health care and reimbursement systems, and market access of drugs in the big five European markets. Therefore, this congress offers a great opportunity for sharing knowledge about health policy impacting drug pricing and reimbursement and for discussing how market access can be supported by HTA.

When you are interested in health care and reimbursement systems, and the research activities Pharmerit conducts to optimize market and patients' access to investigational and existing drug therapies across countries worldwide, please feel free to visit us at our booth no.3!

Pharmerit staff members will participate in the 24th Annual congress of the European Association of Urology (EAU) held in Stockholm, March 17-21st. Pharmerit will present two studies on the health economic consequences of avoiding skeletal-related events in patients with prostate- and renal cell cancer to EAU-attendees.

We are glad to announce that Giorgio Buseghin and Roelien Postema joined our Pharmerit team in Rotterdam, both in the position of Junior Research Consultant. We are delighted to have their expertise on board. Giorgio & Roelien, welcome to our team!