The analysis supports the hypothesis that the potential for cost effectiveness of new therapies is dependent on factors specific to each disease area and furthermore to sub-populations within disease areas. Despite a clinical need still existing, the results suggest that no more technologies are...

Limited healthcare budgets result in payers adopting policies at national, regional or local level to achieve allocative efficiency in drug spending. Some of these aim at creating a link between pharmaceutical prices and the value they provide by setting a cost effectiveness (CE) threshold as...

A considerable amount of the value may be recouped by consumers only towards the end of the lifecycle. Elements affecting the distribution of social surplus vary across disease areas and include the market pricing structure and the pattern of clinical effectiveness observed over time. The...

In this response we concentrate on what Weinstein et al. call the 'major disagreement' between the Erasmus group and the US Panel, which concerns the measurement of productivity losses during illness. We consider the consequences for the individual, for the employer and for the rest of society...

This article provides an outline for a cost-effectiveness analysis of a drug that slows the consequences of Alzheimer's disease. Such an analysis cannot easily be performed for 2 main reasons. The first is that often relatives and friends, rather than professionals, take care of the patient....

Objective: To examine the potential economic impact of treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Design: Regression-based simulation estimation of the long term costs of Alzheimer's disease under a number of treatment scenarios. Data from an epidemiological study conducted in Rotterdam, The Netherlands,...

Estimates of WTP per QALY can be taken as an indication of the monetary value of health gains, which may carry information regarding the appropriate height of the cost-effectiveness threshold. Given the far-reaching consequences choosing a particular threshold, and thus the potential relevance...