A ‘League Table’ of Contingent Valuation Results for Pharmaceutical InterventionsA Hard Pill to Swallow?

Pharmaceutical expenditure represents a large percentage of total healthcare expenditure, and has thus received much attention within the economic evaluation literature. However, although the number of contingent valuation (CV) studies measuring willingness to pay (WTP) in healthcare has increased, little is known about the relative magnitude of values elicited across different interventions, diseases or countries, or the methodological comparability of these values. We address this gap by seeking to establish if it is feasible to use elicited WTP values in resource allocation, illustrated by attempting to compile a ‘league table’ of WTP values for pharmaceutical interventions.