Patients need evidence that reflects real benefit.
In January, the FDA took steps toward modernizing how drugs are evaluated, allowing manufacturers to use more flexible, real-world evidence in clinical trials.1 These changes reflect a growing awareness that traditional evidentiary frameworks insufficiently measure whether patients live longer, feel better, or function more fully.
This move marks an important step. What’s at stake is how we decide which treatments are worth backing and at what price. Now regulators, insurance companies, and manufacturers must build on this progress, committing to evidence that proves every dollar spent delivers meaningful health improvement at affordable prices.
In today’s pharmaceutical system, too many drugs reach the US market showing only modest improvements in trials—often a few months of extra life—without clarity on whether patients actually feel or function better. European systems like Germany have taken a different approach. Under its Arzneimittelmarkt-Neuordnungsgesetz (AMNOG) law, manufacturers must prove not only that a drug works but that it delivers measurable additional benefits over existing therapies.2 More importantly still, Germany evaluates subpopulations and patient-reported outcomes, asking who benefits most, who benefits least, and how the treatment affects daily life.
These are critical questions the US has rarely asked. Here, an overall average improvement often suffices for approval, even when some patient populations gain little or nothing. This difference in evidentiary rigor matters. As insurers and policy makers continue to wrestle with high prices, the future of drug evaluation must hinge not on statistical end points but on outcomes that matter to patients.
Raising the evidentiary bar does not mean stifling innovation. On the contrary, it channels resources toward treatments that deliver measurable benefit to patients. Europe’s approach encourages tailored therapies, or drugs targeted to the specific patient populations most likely to benefit. Though narrower labels may sound restrictive, this approach actually enables more efficient spending. When treatments are used only where they work, both outcomes and cost-effectiveness improve.
Pharma leaders often argue that higher evidence standards will dampen research and development, but the opposite is true when incentives are properly aligned. By tying price to demonstrated value, manufacturers can justify premium pricing for therapies that meaningfully extend life or improve quality of life.
The US has lagged its peers in integrating comparative effectiveness research and real-world evidence into decision-making. More than a decade ago, other developed countries—Britain, Canada, Germany, and Australia among them—built national infrastructures to assess value.3 They did so out of necessity: rising costs and aging populations made ad hoc decision-making unsustainable. By contrast, US drug approvals have focused primarily on efficacy under controlled trial conditions rather than on comparative or real-world performance. These trials are necessary but insufficient.
To succeed going forward, manufacturers must rethink how they design and evaluate products from the start. Clinical and economic value should be built into research and development, not assessed after the fact.
That means designing trials with patient-reported outcomes and subpopulation analyses in mind. It also requires integrating research and development with commercialization strategies early in the process. Companies must ask: Who will pay for this product and why? What populations derive the most benefit? What evidence will insurers, providers, and patients require to see its value?
Failure to answer these questions up front can result in lost pricing power and restricted access later. As European models illustrate, drugs that fail to show overall survival benefit in therapeutic areas like cancer compared to the standard of care will be reimbursed at far lower rates, or not at all.
Rita Numerof, PhD, is president of Numerof & Associates, a global health care strategy consulting firm, working across the health care industry. She has authored 6 books, including Bringing Value to Healthcare: Practical Steps for Getting to a Market-Based Model.
The American pharmaceutical industry remains a global leader in science and innovation, but its reputation has suffered from the perception that high prices are divorced from value and health outcomes. Rebuilding trust means showing that cost and benefit are proportionate. Manufacturers that embrace transparency by publishing outcomes data, engaging patients as research partners, and pricing based on demonstrated impact will be best positioned to lead.
The path forward requires a change in mindset from all segments of the health care ecosystem. Regulators must continue to elevate evidentiary standards, payers must reward measurable outcomes, and manufacturers must design products that deliver demonstrable value. Patients deserve to know that every dollar spent on health care buys real improvement in health and longevity.
The US can lead the world in both innovation and accountability, but only if we measure success by evidence that matters. The FDA’s recent announcement is a strong start. The future of pharmaceuticals depends on how rigorously we test drugs and define value.
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