PharmacoEconomics
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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) invited the manufacturer of denosumab (Amgen Inc., UK) to submit evidence for the clinical and cost effectiveness of denosumab for the prevention of fragility fractures in post-menopausal women, as part of the Institute's single technology appraisal (STA) process. The University of Aberdeen Health Technology Assessment Group were commissioned to act as the Evidence Review Group (ERG); the role of the ERG being to appraise the manufacturer's submission and to produce an independent report. This article provides a description of the company submission, the ERG review and NICE's subsequent decisions. ⋯ This modification altered the cost effectiveness of denosumab versus 'no treatment' (in women with no prior fragility fracture) and zoledronic acid. The NICE Appraisal Committee concluded that, as a treatment option for the prevention of osteoporotic fractures, denosumab should be recommended only in post-menopausal women at increased risk of fracture who cannot comply with the special instructions for administering oral bisphosphonates, or have an intolerance of, or contraindication to, those treatments. For primary prevention, the Appraisal Committee also stipulated specific levels of fracture risk at which denosumab is recommended.
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After the expiry of patents for originator medicines, generic medicines can enter the market, and price competition may occur. This process generates savings to the healthcare payer and to patients, but knowledge about the factors affecting price competition in the pharmaceutical market following patent expiry is still limited. ⋯ The extent to which price competition from generic medicines leads to price reductions appears to vary according to the market share of generic medicines. High generic market share countries have seen a larger decrease in medicine prices than low market share countries.
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Many clinical trials that generate evidence on the quality-of-life (QOL) improvements provided by new health technologies do not incorporate a preference-based generic measure, but generate only disease-specific data. However, in order to meet the information needs of regulators such as the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), such disease-specific data need to be converted into a broader generic measure; for NICE, the preferred instrument is the EQ-5D. The process of converting QOL data from one instrument to another is known as 'mapping'. ⋯ In circumstances where direct utility measurement is not available, mapping provides a valuable method by which to estimate utility data for incorporation into cost-effectiveness analyses. Our findings emphasize the importance of the structure and nature of the mapping analysis undertaken as being a fundamental determinant of the utility estimates generated. Unfortunately, the theoretical guidance available to steer such analyses is still comparatively underdeveloped and this remains an area of health economic analysis in which empiricism largely rules. Ensuring that such mapping is undertaken and interpreted in as transparent and robust a manner as possible is therefore crucial in allowing regulators to accurately compare the clinical and cost effectiveness of new drugs across therapeutic areas.
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Candidaemia and other forms of invasive candidiasis (C/IC) are serious and costly events for hospitalized patients, particularly those in the ICU. Both fluconazole and the echinocandins are recommended as first-line therapy for C/IC. Resource use and cost considerations are important in selecting appropriate treatment but little information is available on the economic implications of using echinocandins in this setting. ⋯ Anidulafungin as first-line treatment of C/IC appears to be of particular benefit to ICU patients, improving clinical outcomes and possibly decreasing costs, driven by reduced ICU and hospital stay, when compared with fluconazole. Anidulafungin also yielded significantly improved treatment outcomes in the general inpatient population, with total costs similar to fluconazole.