PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Claire de Oliveira
AU  - Hai V. Nguyen
AU  - Harindra C. Wijeysundera
AU  - William W.L. Wong
AU  - Gloria Woo
AU  - Paul Grootendorst
AU  - Peter P. Liu
AU  - Murray D. Krahn
TI  - Estimating the payoffs from cardiovascular disease research in Canada: an economic analysis
AID  - 10.9778/cmajo.20130003
DP  - 2013 May 16
TA  - CMAJ Open
PG  - E83--E90
VI  - 1
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.cmajopen.ca/content/1/2/E83.short
4100  - http://www.cmajopen.ca/content/1/2/E83.full
AB  - Background Investments in medical research can result in health improvements, reductions in health expenditures and secondary economic benefits. These “returns” have not been quantified in Canada. Our objective was to estimate the return on cardiovascular disease research funded by public or charitable organizations. Methods Our primary outcome was the internal rate of return on cardiovascular disease research funded by public or charitable sources. The internal rate of return is the annual monetary benefit to the economy for each dollar invested in cardiovascular disease research. Calculation of the internal rate of return involved the following: measuring expenditures on cardiovascular disease research, estimating the health gains accrued from new treatments for cardiovascular disease, determining the proportion of health gains attributable to cardiovascular disease research and the time lag between research expenditures and health gains, and estimating the spillovers from public- or charitable-sector investments to other sectors of the economy. Results Expenditures by public or charitable organizations on cardiovascular disease research from 1981 to 1992 amounted to $392 million (2005 dollars). Health gains associated with new treatments from 1994 to 2005 (13-yr lag) amounted to 2.2 million quality-adjusted life-years. We calculated an internal rate of return of 20.6%. Conclusion Canadians obtain relatively high health and economic gains from investments in cardiovascular disease research. Every $1 invested in cardiovascular disease research by public or charitable sources yields a stream of benefits of roughly $0.21 to the Canadian economy per year, in perpetuity.