title: Social value of a quality-adjusted life year (QALY) in Spain: the point of view of oncologists.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The economic situation showed that the resources devoted to health spending are limited, making rationalisation of their consumption necessary. The relevance of pharmacoeconomic analyses is becoming crucial. The ECO Foundation, promoting the quality of oncology care, set out to analyse the consensus on the new therapeutic targets inclusion and the integration of pharmacoeconomics when evaluating their effectiveness.
  
  
  METHODS
  Study about pharmacoeconomic estimations was performed during the first ECO-Seminar (2010). It was developed using a modified Delphi method, in four stages: (1) committee coordinator establishment, (2) expert-panel selection, (3) preparation and submission of survey (1 question) by email, and (4) analysis of the degree of consensus reached.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results were obtained from surveys completed by 35 experts. Regarding the tolerable annual cost for the approval of new drugs, 68.8 % of the respondents considered a cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained between €30,000 and 100,000 acceptable (34.4 % €30,000-60,000; 34.4 % €60,000-100,000), 21.9 % of the respondents found costs between €100,000-150,000/QALY and 9.3 % of the respondents found costs above €150,000/QALY acceptable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The costs of new drugs are higher than traditional treatments, making it a priority to identify subgroups of patients with specific molecular profiles as candidates for higher-efficiency-targeted therapies. The allocation of the available resources to the most effective interventions, to achieve the best clinical outcomes with lower costs and best subjective profile possible, allows expenditure to be rationalised. Pharmacoeconomic studies are a basic tool for obtaining better health outcomes according to the available resources, while also considering the other needs of the population.
authors.affiliation: Presidente Fundación ECO, Departamento de Medicina, Universitat de Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Camps-Herrero
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Paz-Ares
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Codes
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: López-López
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Antón-Torres
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gascón-Vilaplana
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Guillem-Porta
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carrato
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Cruz-Hernández
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Caballero-Díaz
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blasco-Cordellat
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Moreno-Nogueira
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Díaz-Rubio
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003697:Delphi Technique; D016527:Drug Costs; D055808:Drug Discovery; D017850:Economics, Pharmaceutical; D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000191:economics*; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years; D012945:Social Values; D013030:Spain