New MERCI Accelerated Approval Drug Briefs

The Center for Evidence-based Policy is excited to announce the release of the second set of briefs from its Medicaid Evidence and Review of Cost Initiative (MERCI) project. Focused on drugs approved through the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway, each MERCI drug brief is a case study which includes the clinical trial evidence used for FDA approval, the prevalence of the drug’s indication among Medicaid members, and the costs to Medicaid.

Funded by Arnold Ventures, the MERCI drug briefs make the case for policy enhancements to create better access to confirmatory trial information and permit state Medicaid programs to craft policies that use evidence effectively when uncertainty exists. 

In late spring, the MERCI team will release the final two briefs in this phase of work: pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for cancer immunotherapy and onasemnogene abeparvovec-xioi (Zolgensma) for spinal muscular atrophy.

You can find 7 drug briefs on the Center’s MERCI webpage including the 3 newly released briefs:

• Brief 1: Voxelotor (Oxbryta) for Sickle Cell Disease
• Brief 2: Exon-Skipping Pharmaceutical Treatments for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
• Brief 3: Sotorasib (Lumakras) for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
• Brief 4: Impact of FDA Accelerated Approval on Medicaid
• Brief 5: Tisotumab Vedotin-tftv (Tivdak) for Cervical Cancer (NEW)
• Brief 6: Hydroxyprogesterone Caproate (Makena) for Reducing the Risk of Preterm Birth (NEW)
• Brief 7: Deferiprone (Ferriprox) for Transfusional Iron Overload (NEW)