Redeeming Value

Peter Kolchinsky, RA Capital's founder and managing partner, joins to talk about why so many of the policy ideas floated around drug-pricing are wrongheaded. Industry is going to have to give "a pound of flesh," Kolchinsky argued, and he's explicit on the business practices biopharma must abandon to get a fair system that still rewards innovation. 

Peter literally wrote the book on the topic -- the Great American Drug Deal -- and it's well worth having on your bookshelf. 

PRECISIONheor Vice President Jason Shafrin pops in to talk about the Institute of Clinical and Economic Review and the broader question of where the group's influence is centered and the elements of ICER reports that stakeholders are paying attention to. 

For more from Jason, check of his work at Healthcare-Economist.com.

Brian talks to Jason Buxbaum, who worked with Harvard's David Cutler and others to determine what interventions drove the 3.3-year increase in life expectancy between 1990 and 2015. 

With Donald Trump (probably) ready to give his first major address on drug pricing, W2O's Brian Reid and Ariel Gonzalez go beyond the policy proposals that might be included to look deeper at the politics of it all. 

Brian and Rita talk about whether the JPMorgan Chase/Amazon/Berkshire Hathaway collaboration can revolutionize health care (Rita is confident; Brian: no so much). 

And they play a clip from last week's Health Affairs/National Pharmaceutical Council conference featuring Amitabh Chandra from Harvard explaining why all of the slam-dunk ideas for saving money in health care have failed. 

Brian Reid and Rita Glaze launch "Redeeming Value," W2O Group's bi-weekly examination of health system value, drug pricing, reimbursement, patient access and more. 

In the first episode, Reid and Glaze discuss the value conversation -- and lack thereof -- at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference last month.