A MARA Rating is an independent, standardized assessment of one question: how large is the risk that a specific drug, in a specific indication, is not reimbursed by payers — or reimbursed late, at a reduced price, or for a narrower population than its label covers.
The answer is a letter grade on MARA’s published A++ to C scale, where A++ marks the lowest reimbursement risk and C the highest. Every rating is assigned as of a stated date by a rating committee working only from public, verifiable evidence, under one method that applies to every drug — so any two MARA Ratings can be compared directly.
A rating, not a score
The MARA Rating is sometimes searched for as the “MARA score”. The correct name is rating, and the difference is not cosmetic. A score suggests a number that a formula produces on demand. A MARA Rating is a letter grade on a fixed scale, assigned by a committee under a published method — the same distinction that separates a consumer credit score from an issuer credit rating. MARA does not publish a numeric score for any drug.
What goes into it
Every rating rests on the same ten payer-relevant domains: clinical effectiveness, cost effectiveness, quality of life, safety and adverse effects, comparator selection, patient population and subgroups, care pathway integration, resource use and cost implications, evidence quality and robustness, and uncertainty, sensitivity, and broader impacts. The evidence behind each domain is public and verifiable — trial results, health technology assessments, published payer decisions. How the domains are weighted and combined is the proprietary design of MARA Rating Company AG, based in Switzerland, and is not disclosed.
What it is not
A MARA Rating is not a forecast of any single payer decision, and it is not advice. It is a standardized risk signal, dated before the decisions it informs, produced for a fixed fee that is never contingent on the grade or on any transaction. Once a rating is placed on the record, it stays there — later ratings supersede it; they do not erase it.
Where to see one
See what a MARA Rating report looks like on the sample page, browse the ratings catalogue or the full A–Z index, and read how a rating is produced on the methodology page. To obtain the current rating for a specific drug, use the request link on that drug’s page.