While better access to existing antibiotics remains a central challenge in many low-income countries, worldwide there is clearly a need to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use. A key barrier to the development and use of new stewardship interventions, particularly diagnostic tests, has been the difficulty in demonstrating their value, which requires comprehensive economic evaluations. If they are found to be cost-effective, this is likely to facilitate favourable ‘reimbursement’ decisions, where the payer (e.g., health insurer or government) agrees to reimburse the technology provider at a given price.
Initially, improved economic evaluation of interventions to optimise antibiotic use is likely to mainly affect the availability and use of these interventions in high-income countries. Yet, in terms of resistance globally, interventions to optimise antibiotic use in LMICs could…
