💊 Is arpraziquantel good value for money for Tanzania’s pre-school children? 👧👦 Pre-school children are often left out of schistosomiasis mass drug administration (MDA) because there was no suitable children’s formulation. Arpraziquantel, a newly approved child-friendly tablet, fills this gap. However, it will not be donated, so national governments and global funders will need to decide whether it is affordable. The Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program Foundation (HITAP) and National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) conducted an early economic evaluation of arpraziquantel in Tanzania, now published in The Lancet Regional Health Africa: doi.org/10.1016/j.lanafr.202… Key findings include: 📊 Over four yearly treatment rounds, MDA was estimated to return US$2.10 in benefits for every US$1 spent, while test-and-treat roughly broke even. Including future earnings from better school attendance raised these estimates to US$16.39 and US$8.10 per US$1. 📊 The price of arpraziquantel was the biggest source of uncertainty. The study identifies the price at which each strategy remains good value, which can guide price negotiations and pooled procurement. Real-world cost data from the ongoing STEPPS study would help reduce this uncertainty. 📊 With current evidence, MDA may offer the best value and could be prioritized for implementation research. Test-and-treat may suit low-prevalence areas if diagnostics become cheaper and testing is done during routine child health visits. If you work on early health technology assessments, equity, promoting the use of economic evaluations for funding decisions in low- and middle-income countries, we would love to hear from you! Reach out or drop a comment below. 👇 #NIMR #HITAP #HTA #schistosomiasis #arpraziquantel