Methodology of pharmacoeconomic evaluationstudies in Iran: a brief report

Given the limited resources of health system, economic evaluations studies can provide appropriate evidences for resource allocation by clarifying the possible consequences of a decision. Present study aimed to evaluate the implemented approaches for economic evaluation studies of pharmacoeconomic in Iran.

This study was carried out using the critical review method. All studies related to economic evaluation studies of pharmacoeconomic in Iran, indexed in PubMed and SID databases and Google Scholar search engine, were searched by using appropriate keywords and search strategies until 2021. Further, published papers from Iranian researchers in the field of health economics and pharmacoeconomics and pharmaceutical administration were extracted with the scientometric system of the Health Ministry. Then, retrieved papers were screened by title, abstract, and the whole text. Finally, papers were evaluated by applying the Drummond quality assessment checklist, and finally appropriate ones were selected. Finally, 29 papers were selected and analyzed.

Out of total available papers (n=1324), 29 papers had inclusion criteria to evaluate. The selected papers were analyzed based on 10 parameters, including type of analysis, type of comparator, source of clinical effectiveness, time horizon, used model, perspective of the analysis, measured expected outcomes, discounting of costs and outcomes, sensitivity analysis, and subgroup analysis. Most studies have used cost utility analysis. Shortcomings were found in some aspects as follows: some studies did not mention the applied model, or the time horizon. Moreover, some studies had time horizon more than one year, while the cost and consequences were not discounted.

In recent years, economic evaluation studies in the field of pharmacoeconomic in Iran have been center attention in line with global trend. In order to make a decision regarding the allocation of resources based on the findings of economic evaluation studies, these studies should be conducted with the systematic and transparent approach. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a standard framework for implementing and reporting the results of economic evaluation studies in Iran.