Maximum Likelihood Theory for Retention of Effect Non-Inferiority Trials

Abstract

This work would not have been possible without the help of many people. I wish to thank my thesis advisor Prof. Dr. Axel Munk for proposing this subject and for helpful discussions and Prof. Dr. Edgar Brunner for taking the Koreferat. To Dr. Alexander Schacht (Lilly Deutschland GmbH) I am indebted for providing me with the data set from a clinical trial in the treatment of depression. I would like to thank my colleagues at the Institute for Mathematical Stochastics, in particular Jörn Dannemann, for helpful discussions, inspiration and friendly warm atmosphere. During my time as a Ph.D. student I was a member of the Ph.D. Programm "Applied Statistics and Empirical Methods" in the Centre of Statistics and I gratefully acknowledge financial support from the "Georg-Lichtenberg-Programm" for the first eight month of my Ph.D. studies and the possibility of partaking in interesting scientific discourse. Last but certainly not least I express my deepest gratitude to my family for various forms of support, above all from my girlfriend Merle Schlichte as well as my parents Waltraud and Rainer.