Friday, August 14, 2009

"Is trademarked Drug A better than trademarked Drug B? That's what doctors want to know."

Comparative effectiveness quite simply means comparing two or more treatments for a given condition. Studies may compare similar treatments, such as two drugs, or it may analyze very different approaches, such as surgery and drug therapy.

Comparative effectiveness evaluations may focus only on the relative medical benefits and risks of each option, or they may also weigh both the costs and the benefits of those options. In some cases, a given treatment may prove to be more effective clinically or more cost-effective for a broad range of patients, but frequently a key issue is determining which specific types of patients would benefit most from it.

As it stands, drug companies have little incentive to subject new drugs to the more stringent standard of comparative effectiveness.






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