About the Authors

Simon R. White

Simon.White@mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk

Affiliation Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge Institute of Public Health, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Sheila M. Bird

Affiliation Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge Institute of Public Health, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Elizabeth L. C. Merrall

Affiliation Novartis Pharam BV, Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, Hullenbergweg 83–85, 1101 CL Amsterdam, Netherlands

Sharon J. Hutchinson

Affiliation Health Protection Scotland, Glasgow, G3 7LN, Scotland, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The Home Office’s Surveys, Design and Statistics Subcommittee issued its report on 21st Century Drugs and Statistical Science in UK under SMB’s chairmanship; SMB and SJH contributed to the MRC-funded NIQUAD cluster on Nationally Integrated Quantitative Understanding of Addiction Harms (MRC grant G1000021); SJH has received speaker honoraria from Schering-Plough in relation to HCV educational events; SMB holds GSK shares; SRW and ELCM have declared no competing interests. This did not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Analyzed the data: SRW SMB. Wrote the paper: SRW SMB ELCM SJH.