BRIEF—Merck & Co’s list price for Winrevair way above ICER range

Earlier this week Merck & Co gained much awaited approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) treatment Winrevair (sotatercept-csrk) injection.

The US pharma giant has since announced that the list price for the drug will be $240,000 per year.

Prior to the approval, health technology watchdog the US Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) found that the treatment would reach commonly accepted thresholds for cost-effectiveness if priced between $17,900 to $35,400 per year.

Now that the price has been chosen for Winrevair, the ICER said it will be issuing an “Access and Affordability Alert.”

In the ICER's  Final Evidence Report, it noted that an “Access and Affordability Alert” would be warranted if the list price exceeded $63,000 annually.