Acceptable Incremental Cost Effectiveness Ratio for Use of New Drugs, Cases in Statin Therapies

Abstract

As it is an urgent issue to contain increasing healthcare expenditures, unlimited reimbursement of pharmaceuticals continues to be controversial. The objective of this study is to identify acceptable incremental cost eŠectiveness ratios between new and conventional therapies. Clinical study data forˆve statin therapies were used to indicate treatment eŠec-tiveness and incremental costs were indicated by price premiums at price listing. The incremental cost eŠectiveness ratios to pravastatin were 0 yen/patient with response, 1,475.1 yen/patient with response, 3,033.3 yen/patient with response, and 3,032.4 yen/patient with response. By conducting further analyses in various pharmaceuticals and categorizing acceptable incremental cost eŠectiveness ratios based on the disease severity and expected level of improvement in disease condition, drug prices that re‰ect the value of new pharmaceuticals and that are reasonable to be reimbursed can be suggested.