At a time when it is becoming usual for medicines to be developed for a global market and pharmaceutical companies are endeavouring to expedite the drug development process, Regulatory authorities are concentrating on improving their efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore, it is not surprising that questions are being asked as to how performance might be measured and compared between different authorities who are now often in receipt of dossiers that have been submitted to several agencies at the same time. Issues such as what target should be set for the review of new medicines? and how can...

Reviews current methodology for assessing the health status of patients - their quality of life - and shows how this methodology can be applied to specific diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, angina and Parkinson's disease.