Economies is about trade-offs and choices between wants, needs, and the scarcity of resources to fulfill these wants. When considering economies, most people think of the trade-offs between goods and services and money; however the trade-off might also be expressed in humanistic terms. We are therefore, careful to include both resource use and humanistic evaluations of drug therapy within Pharmacoeconomics assessment.

Pharmacoeconomics has been defined as “the description and analysis of the costs of drug therapy to health care systems and society” .Pharmacoeconomics research identifies, measures, and compares the costs (i.e., resources consumed) and consequences (i.e., clinical, economics, humanistic) of pharmaceutical products and services. Within this framework are included the research methods related to cost – minimization, cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, cost-of-illness, cost-utility, cost-consequences, and decision analysis, as well as quality –of-life and other humanistic assessments. In essence, Pharmacoeconomics analysis uses tools for examining the impact (desirable, undesirable) of alternative drug therapies and other medical interventions.

Questions that Pharmacoeconomics may help to address are as follows:

What drugs should be included on the hospital formulary?
What is the best drug for a particular patient?
What is the best drug for a pharmaceutical manufacturer to develop?
Which drug delivery system is the best for the hospital?
How do two clinical pharmacy services compare?
Which drugs should be included in a Medicad formulary?
What is the cost per quality-adjusted year of life extended by a drug?
Will patient quality of life improved by a particular drug therapy decision?
What is the best drug for this particular drug therapy decision?
What is the best drug for this particular disease?
What are the patient outcomes of various treatment modalities?

In an essence, Pharmacoeconomics analysis uses important tools for examining the outcomes or impact of drug therapy and related healthcare interventions.

Reference

Principle of Pharmacoeconomics, Introduction to Pharmacoeconomics, by- J Lyle Bootman, Raymond J Townsend, and William F McGhan