ABSTRACT
Pharmacoeconomics is no more than the application of health economics to pharmaceuticals. There are some specific issues around this, however, relating to the established means of evaluating medicines, the powerful commercial sponsors and the desires of government to control medicine costs while achieving maximum value for money. The structures of the health service also play a vital role in this. In one form or another, pharmacoeconomics will be of great importance to manufacturers, prescribers, administrators and patients in the foreseeable future. The role of health economics is to undertake this assessment - not to save money, but to make explicit the use of resources and the consequences of alternative use of resources, so as to inform our decisions. The term 'pharmacoeconomics' refers to the application of health economics to pharmaceuticals. Many health economists dislike the term, arguing that there is nothing unique about pharmaceuticals, or the application of health economics to them.
