Weighing Adverse Events to Get at a Drug’s Real Costs

Adverse events from drugs cost the U.S. healthcare system an estimated $25 billion in 2013, but data from adverse events reporting is generally not factored into payer and provider decisions about what drugs are most cost-effective. The healthcare analytics firm AdverseEvents is trying to change that by turning adverse events data gathered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration into actionable information. We spoke to Brian Overstreet, CEO of AdverseEvents, about its RxCost offering, why payers and providers rely on mostly pre-approval clinical data in their drug decision making, and why it’s important to consider the broader costs associate with a drug.