Gandjour, Afschin · PloS one · 2024 · DOI
This study examined how much money Germany should invest in developing a new ME/CFS drug to provide the greatest benefit to patients and society. Researchers calculated that an effective ME/CFS drug could improve quality of life for thousands of patients and save billions of euros, and they determined that Germany's optimal investment would be around €676 million. The study emphasizes that developing ME/CFS treatments requires countries to work together internationally because no single country can bear the full cost alone.
This study provides concrete economic justification for substantial public investment in ME/CFS drug development, demonstrating significant potential returns to society through improved patient outcomes and reduced economic burden. By quantifying both the human and financial impact, it strengthens the case for prioritizing ME/CFS research funding at national and international levels, addressing a historically underfunded disease area.
This study does not prove that a prospective drug with the assumed efficacy actually exists or will be successfully developed—it is a theoretical economic model. It does not establish which specific drug candidates are most promising, nor does it guarantee that the calculated investment level will actually result in a viable treatment. The analysis depends on assumptions about drug effectiveness that would require clinical trial validation to confirm.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Gandjour, Afschin (2024). Determining the societal value of a prospective drug for ME/CFS in Germany.. PloS one. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307086
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-gandjour-2024-determining-societal,
author = {Gandjour, Afschin},
title = {Determining the societal value of a prospective drug for ME/CFS in Germany.},
journal = {PloS one},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0307086},
note = {PubMed: 39024303},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gandjour-2024-determining-societal},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gandjour-2024-determining-societal
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