Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards 2022 (CHEERS 2022) statement: updated reporting guidance for health economic evaluations.

Health economic evaluations are comparative analyses of alternative courses of action in terms of their costs and consequences. The Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) statement, published in 2013, was created to ensure health economic evaluations are identifiable, interpretable, and useful for decision making. It was intended as guidance to help authors report accurately which health interventions were being compared and in what context, how the evaluation was undertaken, what the findings were, and other details that may aid readers and reviewers in interpretation and use of the study. The new CHEERS 2022 statement replaces previous CHEERS reporting guidance. It reflects the need for guidance that can be more easily applied to all types of health economic evaluation, new methods and developments in the field, as well as the increased role of stakeholder involvement including patients and the public. It is also broadly applicable to any form of intervention intended to improve the health of individuals or the population, whether simple or complex, and without regard to context (such as health care, public health, education, social care, etc). This summary article presents the new CHEERS 2022 28-item checklist and recommendations for each item. The CHEERS 2022 statement is primarily intended for researchers reporting economic evaluations for peer reviewed journals as well as the peer reviewers and editors assessing them for publication. However, we anticipate familiarity with reporting requirements will be useful for analysts when planning studies. It may also be useful for health technology assessment bodies seeking guidance on reporting, as there is an increasing emphasis on transparency in decision making.

Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) statement.

Economic evaluations of health interventions pose a particular challenge for reporting. There is also a need to consolidate and update existing guidelines and promote their use in a user friendly manner. The Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) statement is an attempt to consolidate and update previous health economic evaluation guidelines efforts into one current, useful reporting guidance.The primary audiences for the CHEERS statement are researchers reporting economic evaluations and the editors and peer reviewers assessing them for publication. The need for new reporting guidance was identified by a survey of medical editors. A list of possible items based on a systematic review was created. A two round, modified Delphi panel consisting of representatives from academia, clinical practice, industry, government, and the editorial community was conducted. Out of 44 candidate items, 24 items and accompanying recommendations were developed. The recommendations are contained in a user friendly, 24 item checklist. A copy of the statement, accompanying checklist, and this report can be found on the ISPOR Health Economic Evaluations Publication Guidelines Task Force website (www.ispor.org/TaskForces/EconomicPubGuidelines.asp). We hope CHEERS will lead to better reporting, and ultimately, better health decisions. To facilitate dissemination and uptake, the CHEERS statement is being co-published across 10 health economics and medical journals. We encourage other journals and groups, to endorse CHEERS. The author team plans to review the checklist for an update in 5 years.

A general affinity method to purify peroxidase-tagged antibodies.

Antibodies tagged with enzymes, e.g. horseradish peroxidase (HRPO) are used extensively in a broad range of immunoassay, immunohistochemical, and prodrug-based immunotherapeutic applications. These antibodies may be polyclonal, monoclonal, bispecific or genetically engineered in origin. Often, purification of the antibody is the single greatest obstacle to obtaining immunoprobes with high specific activity [Milstein and Cuello, Nature 305 (1983) 537]. We have circumvented this problem by utilising benzhydroxamic acid-agarose to purify the antibodies tagged with HRPO as a preformed immune complex. Benzhydroxamic acid has been shown to have affinity for the active site of HRPO [de Ropp et al., Biochemistry 38 (1999) 1077]. A preliminary ammonium sulfate precipitation of 250 ml of bispecific antibody supernatant was performed and the pellet resuspended and dialysed against phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). This fraction was incubated with HRPO, then loaded on the affinity column which was washed, and the labelled bispecfic monoclonal antibodies were eluted under mild conditions (borate buffer pH 9.0). The effective yield of this bispecific antibody-HRPO complex was 30 assay plates or 3000 wells. We have also successfully co-purified covalent polyclonal-HRPO conjugates and HRPO-labelled streptavidin using a similar strategy to obtain enzyme-labelled probes with high specific activities for a multitude of applications.

Omapatrilat for the management of heart failure and hypertension.

(1) Omapatrilat, first in a new class of cardiovascular drugs called vasopeptidase inhibitors, is under evaluation for the management of hypertension and heart failure. (2) Several small trials have demonstrated the efficacy and tolerability of once-daily omapatrilat in the treatment of mild to moderate hypertension. Efficacy data from one medium-sized trial have demonstrated a benefit comparable to lisinopril in the treatment of systolic heart failure. (2) The benefits and risks of omapatrilat as compared to ACE inhibitors are under evaluation and could affect future clinical therapy guidelines for managing hypertension and heart failure.