This nonprofit is playing a valuable role in framing the drug price discussion

This weekly column offers opinions on the latest pharmaceutical industry news.

A small nonprofit group that assesses the value of medicines — and proposes a fair price — is quickly gaining value itself.

For the past two years, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review has issued high-profile reports assessing the worth of pricey new drugs for treating hepatitis C and high cholesterol, among other conditions. It argued last fall, for instance, that a pair of new cholesterol drugs would be more cost-effective at about $2,100, not $14,100, a year.

The Boston-based organization, which is funded by foundations as well as drug makers and insurance companies, has no power to actually drive down costs, but it is influential nonetheless. Notably, insurers are citing its reports in price negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry.

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