Research Triangle Park, NC - Josephine Mauskopf, VP, Health Economics co-authored a new study published in the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care - Relationship between financial impact and coverage of drugs in Australia.

The study evaluated new drug recommendations by the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) over a 4 year period (2005-2009) and found that financial impact plays a significant role in whether a new drug is recommended for reimbursement.

"Understanding the drug-reimbursement decision process is paramount" said Jo Mauskopf, and the paper's lead author. "This study underscores the importance of budgetary impact of a new drug as an additional factor correlated with the outcome of the review process in Australia after controlling for cost-effectiveness estimates and other clinical variables."

Study methods included descriptive, logistic, survival, and recursive partitioning decision analyses to estimate the relationship between the financial impact of a new drug indication and the recommendation for reimbursement. Multivariable analyses controlled for other clinical and economic variables, including cost per quality-adjusted life-year gained.