Measuring the cost-effectiveness of treatments for people with multiple sclerosis: Beyond quality-adjusted life-years

Abstract

<jats:sec><jats:title>Background:</jats:title><jats:p> It is a familiar story. A promising multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment clears the three regulatory hurdles of safety, quality and efficacy, only to fall at the fourth: cost-effectiveness. This has led to concerns about the validity of the measures typically used to quantify treatment effects in cost-effectiveness analyses and in 2012, in the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence called for an improvement in the cost-effectiveness framework for assessing MS treatments. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Objective and Methods:</jats:title><jats:p> This review describes what is meant by cost-effectiveness in health/social care funding decision-making, and usual practice for assessing treatment benefits. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results:</jats:title><jats:p> We detail the use of the quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) in resource allocation decisions, and set out limitations of this approach in the context of MS. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion:</jats:title><jats:p> We conclude by highlighting methodological and policy developments which should aid addressing these limitations. </jats:p></jats:sec>