ABSTRACT
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 354 Basic Health Economic Concepts .......................................................................... 354 The Social Context of Health Care ........................................................................ 355 Health Economics Theory ...................................................................................... 356
Asymmetric Information ................................................................................... 356 External (Interpersonal) Effects ........................................................................ 357 Risk or Uncertainty ........................................................................................... 357
Economic Evaluation of Pharmaceuticals .............................................................. 357 The Concepts of Social Costs and Benets....................................................... 357
Opportunity Cost: The Alternatives .............................................................. 358 The Discount Rate ............................................................................................. 358 Productivity versus Efciency...........................................................................360
Methods for Pharmacoeconomic Evaluation .........................................................360 Three Techniques of Social Evaluation ............................................................. 361
