THE PHARMACOECONOMIC VALUE OF CONTROLLED-RELEASE DOSAGE FORMS

In recent years the health care industry increasingly has been charged with establishing the economic ''value'' of new pharmaceutical produc ts. Controlled-release dosage forms have a significant potential to pr ovide economic Value by enhancing efficacy and decreasing treatment co sts. In this article we review basic pharmacoeconomic concepts as they apply to controlled-release dosage forms, give an overview of strateg ies for economic assessment of new drug therapies, summarize selected published studies that have evaluated the cost effectiveness of contro lled-release products, and present examples of three types of pharmaco economic analyses that have been considered recently at ALZA Corporati on. We conclude by noting the particular value provided by obtaining t imely information about a product's costs, benefits and relative cost- effectiveness from prospective clinicoeconomic studies. (C) 1997 Elsev ier Science Ireland Ltd.