What Is Pharmacoeconomics?

Pharmacoeconomics is the specific application of economic principles and methods in the pharmaceutical field. Pharmaceutical economics in the broad sense focuses on the economic behavior of the supply and demand side of the drug, the pricing of the drug market under the interaction of the supply and demand side, and various intervention policies in the pharmaceutical field. In the narrow sense, pharmacoeconomics is the application of the basic principles, methods and analysis techniques of economics to the clinical drug treatment process. It is guided by the population perspective of pharmacoepidemiology and conducts research from the perspective of the whole society in order to maximize Comprehensive application science of rational use of existing medical and health resources.

Pharmacoeconomics is the specific application of economic principles and methods in the pharmaceutical field. Pharmaceutical economics in the broad sense focuses on the economic behavior of the supply and demand side of the drug, the pricing of the drug market under the interaction of the supply and demand side, and various intervention policies in the pharmaceutical field. In the narrow sense, pharmacoeconomics is the application of the basic principles, methods and analysis techniques of economics to the clinical drug treatment process. It is guided by the population perspective of pharmacoepidemiology and conducts research from the perspective of the whole society to maximize Comprehensive application science of rational use of existing medical and health resources.

Chinese name

Pharmacoeconomics

main research

Demand-side economic behavior

Medicine

economics

Evaluation

Cost of medication

Definition of pharmacoeconomics

Pharmacoeconomics is a marginal subject that applies the principles and methods of economics to study and evaluate the costs and effects of drug treatment and their relationships. The research task of pharmacoeconomics is mainly to compare the advantages and disadvantages of different drug treatment schemes or drug treatment schemes with other treatment schemes through cost analysis, design reasonable clinical pharmacy monitoring schemes, and ensure that limited social health care resources can maximize the effectiveness.

Pharmacoeconomics is the specific application of the principles and methods of economics in the pharmaceutical field. Based on the theory and methods of domain economic evaluation, it is a new discipline developed in combination with the specificity of the medical field to study how to achieve the maximum with limited drug resources The science of improving health effects. Pharmacoeconomics in the broad sense focuses on the economic behavior of the supply and demand side of the drug, the pricing of the drug market under the interaction of the supply and demand side, and various intervention policies in the pharmaceutical field. The narrow sense of pharmacoeconomics ( pharmacoeconomics ) is the application of the basic principles of economics, methods and analysis techniques to the clinical drug treatment process, and the population perspective of pharmacoepidemology as the guidance method and analysis technology to the clinical drug treatment process Guided by the population perspective of pharmacoepidemiology, the research is carried out from the perspective of the whole society, in order to maximize the rational use of existing medical and health resources in comprehensive applied science. Its main task is to measure, compare, analyze and evaluate different drug treatment programs, drug treatment programs and other treatment programs (such as surgical treatment, physical therapy, etc.), and the relative socioeconomic effects of different health service items, for rational clinical use of drugs and diseases Prevention and control decisions provide a scientific basis.

Historical origins of pharmacoeconomics

Pharmacoeconomics originated in the United States. Since the 1950s, the cost of public health care in the United States has grown rapidly. High medical care costs have overwhelmed the government and social security agencies. The U.S. Congress instructed its Technical Evaluation Agency to conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of public medical expenses. Since then, in the 1980s, the English term Pharmacoeconomics has been produced. The journal " Pharmacoeconomics " was published in 1991 as a monograph on "Principle of Pharmaceutical Economics". Pharmaceutical economics as an interdisciplinary discipline has taken shape.

Research Methods in Pharmacoeconomics

cost analysis

Cost analysis focuses only on input costs and can provide basic information for the control of overall medical expenses and the optimal allocation of medical resources

Cost-benefit analysis

The costs and benefits of drug treatment are reduced to monetary numbers to assess the economics of drug treatment options. A cost-benefit analysis is a method of comparing the cost of a single or multiple medications or other interventions with the resulting value (benefit). It requires that costs and benefits are expressed in currency. The benefits are manifold. For example, if the benefits are saving lives, improving the quality of life of patients, or reducing morbidity, then the monetary value of those survivors, improving quality of life, or avoiding all health resources consumed by the disease The value of money is the benefit.

Cost-effectiveness analysis

The difference from cost-benefit analysis is that the effect of drug treatment is not expressed in monetary units, but other quantitative methods are used to express the purpose of treatment, such as prolonging the life of patients. Cost-effectiveness analysis is one of the more complete forms of comprehensive economic evaluation. It mainly compares the difference between health effects and costs. The result is expressed in terms of the cost required to increase the unit health effect (ie, the cost-effect analysis ratio). Its characteristic is that the treatment results are not expressed in currency units, but clinical indicators such as the number of patients rescued, extended life years, and cure rates are used. The ratio of cost-effectiveness analysis usually uses two representation methods: Cost-effect ratio method, that is, the cost required for each effect. The incremental cost and incremental effect ratio method means that if an incremental cost is given, can it produce an incremental effect? Although the cost effect analysis is limited by its effect units, it is not possible to compare different clinical effects, but The result is easy to be accepted by clinical medical staff and the public, and it is a common method for pharmacoeconomic research.

Cost-utility analysis

Cost-utility analysis is a more detailed cost-effect analysis. It focuses not only on the direct effects of drug treatment, but also on the indirect effects of drug treatment on patients' quality of life. Cost-effectiveness analysis is the development of cost-effectiveness and has many similarities to cost-effectiveness. The cost-utility analysis is to compare the economic rationality of different treatment schemes based on a combination of drug users' wishes, preferences, and quality of life. To some extent, both use money to measure costs. And the measurement results also use clinical indicators as the measurement parameters of the final results. The difference is that the cost effect is a simple biological indicator (such as prolonging life time, increasing body weight, etc.), but the result of cost-utility analysis is closely related to quality. Paying attention to the patient's requirements for quality of life, the utility function changes [ Commonly used units are QALY (Quality Adjusted Life Years), not changes in health outcomes. It can compare the drug treatment measures for different diseases, and it is the research method of pharmacoeconomics that has been highly regarded in recent years. However, different diseases affect different aspects of patients' lives, and universal quality of life indicators cannot reflect the specificity of the disease. Therefore, the rationality of cost-utility analysis in the field of pharmacoeconomics is still controversial.

Least Cost Analysis

For the selection of two or more drug treatment schemes, although the cost is only quantified, the effect needs to be considered, which is the difference between minimum cost analysis and cost analysis. Minimum cost analysis, also known as cost analysis, is a special case of cost-effectiveness analysis. It compares which drug treatment (including other medical intervention programs) has the lowest cost when the clinical effects are exactly the same. It must first prove that the difference between the results of two or more drug treatment programs is not statistically significant, that is, P> 0.05, and then find the least costly through analysis. Because it requires the same clinical treatment effect of the drug, including efficacy, side effects, and duration, the application range is more limited.

Application areas of pharmacoeconomics

(1) Drug pricing Through the economic evaluation of new drugs and similar drugs on the market, pharmaceutical manufacturers can strategically determine the price range of new drugs, which is an important internal strategic research in the drug development process.

(2) The level of drug compensation or co-payment Except for the UK that has a national medical service system to compensate for almost all marketed drugs, most European countries or designated drug reimbursement scopes, or use different co-payment levels for different types of drugs, or use reference Pricing system to limit public compensation for medicines.

(3) Establishing a hospital medication list or diagnosis routine Many countries have adopted a series of policies and measures to promote the effective use of medical resources by independent medical service decision makers (including local medical administrative departments, hospitals, and physicians).

(4) One of the main purposes of promoting the rational use of pharmacoeconomics is to promote the rational use of medicines and the effective use of pharmaceutical resources. The rational use of medicines is defined by the World Health Organization as "to enable patients to obtain clinically needed drugs, and to use doses that meet individual needs , Take the right period and have the lowest cost. "

(5) Controlling the cost of medicines With the economic and population growth, changes in the disease spectrum and the development of science and technology, people's demand for medical services is increasing, medical high-tech and new drugs are widely used, and medical costs, especially drug costs, have increased dramatically. More and more governments are paying attention.