Economic evaluation of oral valdecoxib versus diclofenac in the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis in a randomized clinical trial

This is a critical abstract of an economic evaluation that meets the criteria for inclusion on NHS EED. Each abstract contains a brief summary of the methods, the results and conclusions followed by a detailed critical assessment on the reliability of the study and the conclusions drawn. A significant reduction in health-care resource utilisation with the use of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2-specific inhibitors can be expected, owing to the more favourable upper gastrointestinal safety of these drugs compared with non-specific non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).