Pharmacoeconomic evaluation and its application in clinical guideline development

Pharmacoeconomic evaluation is an analysis technique that combines data on both costs and health outcomes to allow clinical decision makers to assess the cost effectiveness of pharmaceutical products and services. It is an important tool for decision makers when allocating the scarce resources available for their healthcare systems. One particularly important application of pharmacoeconomic evaluation is its use in clinical guideline development. The incorporation of pharmacoeconomic evaluation in these guidelines ensures that the pharmaceutical products and services recommended for use on a large scale represent value for money and ensures that best use is made of the finite resources available. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK is leading the way in utilizing economic evidence to inform its recommendations for clinicians and has well-developed methods for using economic evidence in its guidelines. In this talk, a brief introduction to the types of economic evaluations will be given. The concept and importance of clinical guidelines will also be explained with examples of the different approaches to their development given, in terms of type of evidence, inclusion of pharmacoeconomic evaluations and recommendations made. Examples will be given from NICE guidelines to illustrate how the evidence from pharmacoeconomic evaluations informed the guideline recommendations, drawing on the speaker’s personal experience in conducting these pharmacoeconomic evaluations.