Merck & Co spearheads move towards outcomes-based healthcare

America’s Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) is to collaborate with health services company Optum to draft reimbursement models driven by health outcomes data.

The companies are looking to explore models where payments are aligned more closely with the performance of the drug, in terms of the end result for patients.

The use of a value-based, or outcomes-based approach to pricing, long established in the fields of market access and reimbursement in European countries, has not taken off to the same extent in the USA, where there are often fewer pricing pressures.