Economic issues pharmacoeconomics

Although no prospective pharmacoeconomic sffidies have been performed in patients with GCSE, a number of economic issues may... 

These methods have been well developed in medical technology assessment as well as in other fields of economic research. However, there remain a number of methodological issues that confront investigators in economic evaluations of pharmaceutical therapies. This section reviews some of these issues as they arise in the design, analysis, and interpretation of pharmacoeconomic evaluations. 

While some prospective data collection is required for almost all pharmacoeconomic studies, the amount of data to be collected for the pharmacoeconomic evaluation is still the subject of much debate. There is no definitive means of addressing this issue at present. Phase II studies can be used to develop data that will help determine which resource consumption items are essential for the economic evaluation. Without this opportunity for prior data collection, however, we must rely upon expert opinion to suggest major resource consumption items that should be monitored within the study. Duplicate data collection strategies (prospective evaluation of resource consumption within the study s case report form with retrospective assessment of resource consumption from hospital bills) can be used to ensure that data collection strategies do not miss critical data elements. 

Selection of appropriate treatment alternatives in a clinical smdy is essential for a useful economic evaluation of a pharmaceutical therapy. This issue is both a clinical and an economic one. Comparators can be the most common alternative therapies for a condition or the lowest possible cost alternatives, even when not frequently used. However, in pharmacoeconomic studies, treatment comparators may be inappropriately selected as much for their relatively high price as for their likely effectiveness. Phase III smdies have special limitations in this regard, because agents will be compared against the... 

Cohen D. The impact of health economics on health policy, health services and decision-making. In Salek S, ed. Pharmacoeconomics and Outcome Assessment — A global issue. Haslemere Euromed Communications Ltd, 1999. 

Over the past few years many reports have been published on pharmacoeconomics, pricing, and reimbursement issues. Most of the major market research firms that cover the pharmaceutical industry have published on these topics. Following is a list of the more recent titles, but a search in any of the market research portals using the terms pharmacoeconomic(s), pricing, reimbursement, or health economics will usually... 

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