David W. Matthews, Samantha Coleman, Homie Razavi, Jean-Manuel Izaret
Summary
High unit prices of treatments limit access. For epidemics like that of hepatitis C virus (HCV), reduced treatment access increases prevalence and incidence, making the infectious disease increasingly difficult to manage. The objective of the current study was to construct and test an alternative pricing model, the Payer License Agreement (PLA), and determine whether it could improve outcomes, cut costs and incentivize innovation versus the current unit-based pricing model. We built and used computational models of hepatitis C disease progression, treatment, and pricing in historical and future scenarios and quantitatively analyzed their economic and epidemiological impact in three high-income countries.
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