Economic evaluation of drug therapy: a review of the contingent valuation method.

The aim of this paper is to review the use of the contingent valuation (CV) method in economic evaluation of drug therapy. With the CV method, willingness to pay for a project 'treatment' is measured with survey methods, which makes it possible to carry out traditional cost-benefit analysis. The CV method has been developed in environmental economics and is now the most commonly used method of measuring environmental benefits. Due to the limitations of existing methods, empirical applications are starting to appear in the health field as well. From the empirical applications with respect to drug treatment it is evident that it is possible to achieve acceptable response rates. The methodological problems encountered when measuring willingness to pay with survey methods are similar to the problems encountered when measuring utility and quality of life in cost-utility analysis. It is concluded that further studies with the CV method are necessary to further explore questions concerning the reliability and validity of the method in this field.