The increasing number of economic evaluations of healthcare interventions and of drug therapies in particular has been well documented. Surveys of the quality of studies have demonstrated that standards of conduct of such studies have not similarly increased. Concerns over the standards have led...

Background: Missing data resulting from premature study withdrawal are a common problem in the analysis of longitudinal data in clinical trials. To date, this subject has received little attention in the context of economic evaluations and with regard to the analysis of cost data. Objectives: To...

Objective: This model introduces a unique and inexpensive technique to estimate profit increases that might be expected from: (i) an additional clinical trial to establish a drug's second clinical indication; and (ii) a survey of market demand. Design: Microsoft Excel_ spreadsheets are used to...

There is increasing use of economic evaluation to support decision-makers in health services for allocation of scarce healthcare resources. However, information necessary for economic evaluations cannot always be derived from well-conducted prospective clinical studies, and decision-analytical...

New medicines can be cost effective, and the under use of many therapeutic advances has been a cause for concern. Equally, the introduction of certain expensive products onto the market prematurely where adequate clinical studies have not been conducted equally represents an unsatisfactory...

This article presents the first version of a reporting format for modelling studies which is based on a general reporting format by our taskforce, which was published in the previous issue of this journal. The use of decision-analytical models for economic evaluations is increasing because, in...

The notable increase in the quantity of economic evaluations in the last 2 decades has not been matched by good methodological standards. This problem is particularly evident in the field of economic evaluations of hepatitis B vaccines. The results of 2 systematic reviews conducted by us in 1993...

Economic analysis has become increasingly important in healthcare in general, and particularly with respect to pharmaceuticals. Therefore, it is vital that the methods used in such evaluations are carefully scrutinised and refined. However, guidelines contain only a limited number of...