When simpler isn’t better: a case for generalized cost-effectiveness analysis

Many health economists rely on outdated "cost-effectiveness analysis" (CEA) to assess a drug's value and determine if it's worth its price. By ignoring societal value, CEAs underestimate the value of a medicine. Instead of doing conventional CEA, we can do better math, called generalized cost-effectiveness analysis (GCEA), which asks a broader set of questions that more fully capture the value of a medicine.

‍When valuable new medicines are undervalued, we get fewer of them, and society ends up worse off.