Australian PBS Drug Evaluation Service

Since January 1993, Australian drug companies have had to lodge with the government economic evaluations to support their applications for listing of new products under the Pharmaceutical benefits Scheme. To help them meet this requirement, two major health and pharmaceutical organizations have established a service to give complete economic evaluation of drug products.

Through a "one-stop shop" staffed by clinical researchers, marketers, economists, statisticians and clinicians, the Monash University-based National Center for Health Program Evaluation and IDT Biomedicus, a division of the Institute of Drug Technology Australia, have set up a fully-integrated clinical research and health economics service, which, says Tony Harris of NCHPE, draws on the strengths of both groups. "IDT Biomedicus and NCHPE cover the entire process of clinical development, from design and implementation of clinical studies for cost-effectiveness analyses to the preparation of integrated reports on clinical efficacy in support of submissions to the Pharmaceutical benefits Advisory Committee," he says.