Comparative effectiveness a challenge for drugmakers

Call it “comparative effectiveness research” or a piece of “Obamacare,” but a plan to help health insurers, doctors and patients pick the best and most cost-effective treatment options could reshape drug makers’ business models.
That is, if it ever happens as originally envisioned. Confusion and questions reign, even as health care costs continue to escalate.
What data standards will payers — Medicaid and private health insurance plans, in particular — want to see from comparative effectiveness research? When will they want to see the data? How big of a clinical difference between one drug and a competitor’s drug will be needed to get payers to cover all or a portion of its use? And how big of an impact will such studies have on the bottom line?