Farmacoeconomía: ¿evaluación científica o estrategia comercial?

• Published in: Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública
• Main Author: Germán Velásquez
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 1999
• Subjects: Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49891999000100018; https://doaj.org/article/cea73d0d27914512b6ff09156504e67c

The new global context, the dramatic rise in the cost of many health technologies, and the mounting pressures that constrain health sector budgets in most countries have created the need to evaluate health interventions, including pharmaceuticals, from an economic perspective. Pharmacoeconomics is "the application of economic theory to pharmacotherapeutics" and is often linked to commercial marketing. We propose standardizing the various methods of economic analysis so as to allow for comparisons and assessment of correct relationships. The author concludes pharmacoeconomics is simply an analytical tool that can be applied for scientific assessment or commercial promotion, depending on the objectives and purpose for which the use of this new discipline is intended.