Dr. Steven Pearson, MD, MSc Institute for Clinical and Economic Review Interview Date: May 24, 2016

 The ICER Report's intent is to identify "value-based" treatments for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Identifying the best bang for the buck is good, but with the complexity of multiple myeloma, could this get in the way of a cure? Dr. Pearson explains the objective of the public ICER report and how it will be used. The report has been hotly contested by patient advocacy groups who are concerned that the report will give insurers reasons to limit treatment options. The Myeloma Crowd believes that finding a cure (or the right treatment for the right patient at the right time) is the ultimate goal and that looking at cost cutting as a standalone objective gets in the way of this larger and more important objective. ICER chose to include myeloma in its reporting as the disease had several new drug approvals and uses drugs in combinations, which layer on costs. Myeloma is an incredibly complex disease and patients present with 5 different types of clones on average at diagnosis. Additionally, those clones morph over time. We fundamentally disagree that reallocating money from one disease will provide success in another. Typically, this approach kills innovation. While we understand that combining drugs means increased cost,  we don't believe that cost cutting measures can be looked at as an isolated issue until we have deeper data about which drug combos work best for which patients. In our opinion, "How can we cut costs?" isn't the right question. A better question is "How do we collaborate to cure myeloma faster to save life and money at the same time?"