Cost per responder analysis of iptacopan versus eculizumab and ravulizumab in treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria

Jason Shafrin

That is the tile of my recent paper in the Journal of Medical Economics with co-authors Kyi-Sin Than, Sanjana Muthukrishnan, Jincy Paulose, Ver Bilano and Nicholas Kuypers. The abstract is below: ObjectiveParoxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare and debilitating hematological disease with significant economic burden. Despite the availability of multiple therapies, there is a…

Friday AI Links

Jason Shafrin

ChatGPT introduces OpenAI for Healthcare. AI can make prescription renewals in Utah. AMA’s perspective of physicians role with AI. US Army’s use of AI to improve soldiers’ mental health. Claim the AI skill boost.

Most Favored Nation Drug Pricing in the U.S.: Comparing GENEROUS, GLOBE and GUARD

Jason Shafrin

The Trump administration has introduced three most-favored-nation (MFN) drug pricing initiatives designed to link U.S. pharmaceutical costs to prices paid in economically comparable countries. Most-favored-nation pricing requires manufacturers to provide rebates when U.S. prices exceed those in reference nations—a direct response to the persistent gap between U.S. drug prices and those in other developed economies.…

2025 Publications

Jason Shafrin

As we start off 2026, I wanted to quickly look back at the research that I published in peer-reviewed journals last year. Here’s the list: Shafrin J, Jadhav K, Warren C, Quddus S, Zawadzki N, Yang D, Damon A, Spurrier K, Batt K, Wei D. Chronic myeloid leukemia treatment intolerance imposes additional resource and economic…

Direct and Indirect Effects of COVID-19 Vaccine

Jason Shafrin

Clinical trials focus in-sample (direct) effect of vaccines on health outcomes (e.g., decrease in illness, hospitalization, emergency department use, and death). Typically, however, clinical trials do not test whether the vaccines reduce transmission. FDA do not require this as it would be logistically challenging and costly to estimate indirect effects of vaccination within a clinical…

What are rural emergency hospitals?

Jason Shafrin

Rural Emergency Hospitals (REHs) are a new Medicare provider type created to preserve essential emergency and outpatient access in rural communities where low inpatient volume makes full-service hospitals financially unsustainable. They receive enhanced outpatient payments and a fixed monthly facility payment in exchange for forgoing acute inpatient care.​ CMS has an REH fact sheet that…

Links

Jason Shafrin

FDA Qualifies First AI Drug Development Tool in MASH. No impact of Medicaid on crime rates. “The life of an artist is…” Elasticity of disability insurance (DI) takeup to DI generosity: 1.26 Do it anyway.