Reimbursement prices of new, innovative medicines in Germany: a comparison of negotiation and cost-effectiveness analysis.

This study aimed to compare reimbursement prices for new, innovative non-orphan drugs in Germany based on price negotiation and cost-effectiveness analysis, using the efficiency frontier (EF) approach and cost-utility analysis (CUA). For the EF, the next effective intervention and no intervention were used as comparators. Three pairwise comparisons were conducted: negotiation vs EF, CUA vs EF and negotiation vs CUA.

Modelling the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of pay-for-performance programs in health care.

Introduction: With an upward trend in adoption by industrialized nations, pay-for-performance (P4P) mechanisms are increasingly recognized for fostering quality improvement in healthcare. P4P programs conventionally reward providers with supplemental payments upon achieving predefined performance targets. This study aims to utilize decision modelling to determine the cost-effectiveness and maximum incentive levels of P4P programs.

Inclusion of phase III clinical trial costs in health economic evaluations.

Introduction: Protocol-driven trial activities contribute to the utility gain demonstrated in the phase III clinical trial of a new drug. If this utility gain cannot be distinguished from the effects of the new drug itself, protocol-driven trial costs cannot be easily dismissed for consistency reasons. This study aims to estimate the impact of including per-patient costs of phase III clinical trials on the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER).

Evaluating the Usefulness of Population-Wide COVID-19 Testing in the Omicron Era: Insights from a German Model.

Background: The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, which has become dominant worldwide since late 2021, presents a unique challenge due to its high rate of asymptomatic transmission. This study evaluates the efficacy and value of population-wide testing, including self-testing, in the context of COVID-19, particularly under the Omicron variant, using data from Germany.

Methods: A decision-analytical model and secondary data was used for assessing the impact of systematic screening and testing for COVID-19.

Determining the societal value of a prospective drug for ME/CFS in Germany.

Background: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) imposes a substantial societal and economic burden. The aim of this study is to ascertain the optimal level of public research and development (R&D) investment in Germany for a prospective drug, given the pressing need for effective treatments.

Methods: This study calculates the societal value from a German perspective by integrating health and economic outcomes in the context of public R&D investment for ME/CFS.

Value-based pricing of cognitive behavioral therapy for depression in primary care: an economic evaluation.

Objectives: Value-based pricing (VBP) determines product prices based on their perceived benefits. In healthcare, VBP prices medical technologies considering health outcomes and other relevant factors. This study applies VBP using economic evaluation to provider-patient communication, taking cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for adult primary care patients with depressive disorders as a case study.

Long COVID: Costs for the German economy and health care and pension system.

Background: Patients with acute COVID-19 can develop persistent symptoms (long/post COVID-19 syndrome). This study aimed to project the economic, health care, and pension costs due to long/post-COVID-19 syndrome with new onset in Germany in 2021.

Methods: Using secondary data, economic costs were calculated based on wage rates and the loss of gross value-added.

Optimal allocation of scarce PCR tests during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background/aim: During the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Germany and various other countries experienced a shortage of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) laboratory tests due to the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant that drove an unprecedented surge of infections. This study developed a mathematical model that optimizes diagnostic capacity with lab-based PCR testing.

Methods: A mathematical model was constructed to determine the value of PCR testing in relation to the pre-test probability of COVID-19.

A Model-Based Estimate of the Cost-Effectiveness Threshold in Germany.

Purpose: Value-based pricing of new, innovative health technologies defined as pricing through economic evaluation requires the use of a basic cost-effectiveness threshold. This study presents a cost-effectiveness model that determines the cost-effectiveness threshold for life-extending new, innovative technologies based on health system opportunity costs.

Methods: To estimate health system opportunity costs, the study used German data and examined the period between 1896 and 2014.

COVID-19 and the forgone health benefits of elective operations.

Background And Aim: The first SARS-CoV-2 pandemic wave in Germany involved a tradeoff between saving the lives of COVID-19 patients by providing sufficient intensive care unit (ICU) capacity and foregoing the health benefits of elective procedures. This study aims to quantify this tradeoff.

Methods: The analysis is conducted at both the individual and population levels.

Was EU's COVID-19 vaccine procurement strategy irrational? A re-analysis based on cost-effectiveness considerations.

Aim: The European Union (EU) has received criticism for being slow to secure coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine contracts in 2020 before the approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine. This study aimed to retrospectively analyze the EU's COVID-19 vaccine procurement strategy. To this end, the study retrospectively determined the minimum vaccine efficacy that made vaccination cost-effective from a societal perspective in Germany before clinical trial announcements in late 2020.

Cost-effectiveness of future lockdown policies against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aim: While the European Union (EU) has approved several COVID-19 vaccines, new variants of concern may be able to escape immunity. The purpose of this study is to project the cost-effectiveness of future lockdown policies in conjunction with a variant-adapted vaccine booster. The exemplary scenario foresees a 25% decline in the vaccine protection against severe disease.

Benefits, risks, and cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 self-tests from a consumer's perspective.

Background: The aim of this study is to quantify the health benefits, risks, and cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 self-tests from a consumer's perspective in Germany.

Methods: The analysis is based on a modelling approach using secondary data. The clinical endpoints considered in this analysis are avoided SARS-CoV-2 infections and secondary severe clinical events (death, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and long COVID syndrome).

Value-based pricing of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to determine the value-based price of a COVID-19 vaccine from a societal perspective in Germany.

Methods: A decision model was constructed using, e.g.

The price of curing cancer.

Background: Health care systems around the world struggle with high prices for new cancer drugs. The purpose of this study was to conduct a gedankenexperiment and calculate how much health expenditures would change if a cure for cancer through pharmaceutical treatment were made available. The cancer cure was conceived to eliminate both cancer deaths and the underlying morbidity burden of cancer.

Nephron overload as a therapeutic target to maximize kidney lifespan.

Kidney lifespan is a patient-oriented outcome that provides much needed context for understanding chronic kidney disease (CKD). Nephron endowment, age-associated decline in nephron number, kidney injury history and the intrinsic capacity of nephrons to adapt to haemodynamic and metabolic overload vary widely within the population. Defining percentiles of kidney function might therefore help to predict individual kidney lifespan and distinguish healthy ageing from progressive forms of CKD.