Abstract
In Slovenia during the period 2000-2010, the number of years of potential life lost before the age of 70 years per 100,000 population under 70 years of age declined 25 %. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that pharmaceutical innovation played a key role in reducing premature mortality from all diseases in Slovenia, and to examine the effects of pharmaceutical innovation on the age-standardized number of cancer deaths and on hospitalization from all diseases. The estimates imply that approximately two-thirds of the 2000-2010 decline in premature mortality was due to pharmaceutical innovation. If they assume that pharmaceutical expenditure was the only type of expenditure affected by pharmaceutical innovation, the cost per life-year saved was E3,953, which is well below even the lowest estimates of the value of a life-year saved. Moreover, 85 %of the increase in drug expenditure may have been offset by a reduction in hospital expenditure; therefore, the cost per life-year saved may have been only E611.