The Journal's Policy on Cost-Effectiveness Analyses

Abstract

Concern about cost now dominates many decisions about the use of drugs and other therapeutic interventions. Increasingly, such decisions are being influenced by published economic analyses that relate the effectiveness of treatments and their associated costs (cost-effectiveness analyses). Many of these analyses are supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other neutral sources. Some, however, are funded by companies that hope these analyses will put their products in a favorable light¹. Companies might then even use particularly favorable analyses to justify the prices of new drugs.