P&T Committee Drug Prioritization Criteria: A Tool Developed by a Saudi Health Care System.

INTRODUCTION: The workflow of a P&T committee can become overwhelming and may be affected by many internal and external factors. Organization, standardization, and an enhanced systematic approach for drug evaluations are necessary to ensure that all requested drugs receive an equal and unbiased evaluation and consideration for addition based on the institution's objectives, priorities, and budget. Our aim was to create a scoring tool that would assist in systematically prioritizing drugs being requested for formulary addition and to eliminate cumbersome evaluations for drugs that clearly do not offer any additional advantage.
METHODS: A working group consisting of P&T committee members met with the task of creating initial screening criteria for prioritizing drugs requested for formulary addition. Members conducted independent literature searches and focused meetings to develop a scoring tool that would be piloted on drugs being requested for addition.
RESULTS: We developed a scoring tool to prioritize drugs requested for formulary addition. The tool assigns a score for each drug that allows it to be classified into one of three categories: 1) for expedited review, 2) for routine review, or 3) for rejection without the need for a full evaluation.
CONCLUSIONS: We believe that this scoring tool will assist in prioritizing drugs requested for formulary addition while allowing for full consideration of the most important decision-making factors. In an era of expected U.S. Food and Drug Administration deregulation and economic constraints, P&T committees must create tools that ease their workflow and organize their priorities.