Assessment of the therapeutic value of new medicines marketed in Australia.

Michael J Wonder

doi:10.1186/2052-3211-6-7

Abstract

Assessment of the therapeutic value of new medicines marketed in Australia.

Highlights

I read with interest the study by Vitry et al on the therapeutic value of new medicines approved for marketing in Australia in the mid 2000s using two European classification systems and their finding that “only a minority of the new medicines in Australia provide added therapeutic value compared to existing treatments” [1]
According to Vitry et al, “from an economic perspective, pharmaceutical products are considered innovative as long as they are new and the success of innovation is defined in terms of sales, with the assumption that higher sales is a measure of the intrinsic worth of the innovation.”
The magnitude of a medicine’s incremental health gain over current treatment combined with the level of unmet clinical need for effective interventions for patients with the disease/condition yields an estimate of its therapeutic value

Summary

Introduction

I read with interest the study by Vitry et al on the therapeutic value of new medicines approved for marketing in Australia in the mid 2000s using two European classification systems and their finding that “only a minority of the new medicines in Australia provide added therapeutic value compared to existing treatments” [1]. Vitry et al note “between 2000 and 2009, of the 984 new medicines or new indications approved in France, more than half did not provide anything new.” This statement is confusing; perhaps they meant to say “nothing of therapeutic benefit/gain.”

Results

Conclusion