Rectal bleeding following acitretin therapy for discoid lupus erythematosus.

Innovative value strategies for reimbursement of medications include value-based agreements (VBAs) between payers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, which have the potential to improve affordability and patient access to therapy, as well as lead to a reduction in downstream health events and associated medical costs. VBAs link payment for a medication to its performance in real-world clinical practice measured against prespecified outcomes that are aligned to existing evidence. Given its high prevalence, economic burden, and impact on mortality, cardiovascular disease (namely, coronary heart disease) represents an opportunity for VBAs to contribute to improved health outcomes and patient experiences while reducing or containing total medical costs. AstraZeneca developed a VBA framework directly comparing 2 antiplatelet therapies indicated to treat acute coronary syndrome (ACS)-ticagrelor and clopidogrel-based on the PLATO trial, which demonstrated superiority for ticagrelor in reducing the incidence of recurrent myocardial infarction (MI) in patients with ACS. Between 2015 and 2018, 11 contract-years of VBAs utilizing this framework were implemented in commercial and Part D health insurance plans, totaling nearly 32,000 unique patients in which pooled analyses were conducted. Aggregated VBA results indicate that ticagrelor consistently outperformed expectations in reducing recurrent MI vs clopidogrel, while also illustrating how comparative VBA frameworks of this nature may overcome challenges noted for VBAs and be utilized more broadly in future applications.