How to Value Curative Therapies

If you had a life-threatening disease and were offered a choice of treatments, would you opt for a one-time cure or for weekly treatments for the rest of your life? The answer for most people is unsurprising: a cure. Cures eliminate the inconvenience of ongoing treatment, decrease caregiver burden, and reduce patient anxiety.

Although we want cures, how do payers, policy makers, and pharmaceutical manufacturers place a price on them?

Is trying to use the tools of economics to values cures useful, or--as Winston Wong writes--is cost-effectiveness modeling "not sensitive nor sophisticated enough" for curative therapies?

Read my full response-- titled "How to Value Curative Therapies"--which was published in the Journal of Clinical Pathways today.