Objectives To compare prices of in-patent active ingredients (AIs) in Europe at three levels (ex-factory prices, net distribution margins and third party payers' prices).Methods We compared the prices in seven EU countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK) of...

Objective: To estimate resource utilisation and direct costs of treatment for patients with schizophrenia in Italian Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs). Design: Multicentre, retrospective observational study. CMHCs recruited all patients who attended a follow-up consultation during the...

Objective: To review studies on the costs of diabetes and its complications through a scheme designed specifically for assessing the quality of cost-of-illness (COI) studies. Design and Setting: The methodology of COI studies in diabetes was analysed in order to assess the significance of...

Epilepsy is a chronic treatable condition for which new diagnostic tools and several new drugs and non-pharmacological treatments are now available. The cost profile of these options is assessed here through an overview of the available literature focusing on studies of childhood epilepsy....

It is remarkable how health care systems, created over decades and influenced by very different cultures exhibit similar problems. Most health care systems are compartmentalised with managers at margins responding to perverse incentives and seeking to shift patients and costs onto rival...