Cost-effectiveness analysis in pharmacogenomics

The existence of finite healthcare budgets drives the need to consider opportunity cost and demonstrate that pharmacogenomic interventions offer added value, in terms of the relative costs and benefits, compared with current practice. This is where the framework of cost-effectiveness analysis is useful. Existing systematic reviews of economic evaluations of genetic technologies have all highlighted the need to improve the quality of the economics evidence base. More recent cost-effectiveness analyses of pharmacogenomics are generally of higher quality. The future will see an increase in the number of published cost-effectiveness analyses. Critical appraisal of these analyses is necessary to ensure the evidence base is sufficiently robust to inform resource allocation decisions at local and national levels.