Drug Evaluation Committee Multivariate Meta-analysis and Alternative Endpoints in Medical Technology Assessment
May 2023
In Japan, a cost-effectiveness evaluation system was fully implemented in 2019 for the purpose of adjusting the prices of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. When assessing cost-effectiveness, it is necessary to evaluate the additional benefits of the technology under evaluation relative to the comparator technology through a systematic review.In cases where there is no evidence directly comparing the technology under evaluation with the comparator, indirect comparisons are performed using methods such as network meta-analysis. Based on Technical Support Documents (TSDs) Nos. 1–7 published by the Decision Support Unit of the UK’s NICE, this task force prepared and released the report “Introduction to the NICE TSD Evidence Synthesis Series:Focusing on Network Meta-Analysis,” which was released in 2020. This report introduces TSD 20, a follow-up to that report, which covers multivariate meta-analysis—an extension of meta-analysis to multiple endpoints using a Bayesian framework—and the related methodologies for surrogate endpoints, which are applications of this approach.These approaches are useful when conducting health technology assessments of new drugs at a stage where evidence for surrogate endpoints is available but evidence for the true endpoint is not, or when constructing economic models using multiple endpoints to leverage a greater amount of evidence.
Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, Drug Evaluation Committee,
, Data Science Subcommittee, FY2022 Continuing Task Force 7
Multivariate Meta-Analysis and Alternative Endpoints in Health Technology Assessment (1.5 MB)