ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a description of the context in which both “noncommercial” and industrial evaluation of health interventions (EHI) take place, including the introduction of “Guidelines” for health evaluation evidence, and the proposed Irish Guidelines, as an example. It explains the nature and types of both “non-commercial” and industrial EHI, and examines the policy implications of the project’s findings. The chapter considers the context, the proposed Irish Guidelines, Noncommercial EHI activity in European Union countries, and Industrial EHI, before looking at two challenges raised by the ASTEC authors. Evidence for cost-effectiveness is being demanded by some governments, and cost-effectiveness is widely termed the “fourth hurdle” which new products are required to surmount. Since 1997, official procedures asking for or requiring economic evidence have been introduced by Denmark, England and Wales, Finland, the Netherlands, and Portugal; the proposed Irish Health Technology Guidelines are provided, below, as a example.
