The Role of Pharmaeconomy for Allocation of Resources in the Health Care Sector - Overview and Implications for Germany

Demographic changes, changes in the spectrum of illnesses as well as progress in medical technology lead to an increasing request for health care services. At the same time, governmental or parastatal institutions undertake the task to exclude services in the respective health care system. In many countries, the valuation of effectiveness for pharmaceuticals is - in addition to the actual permission - increasingly demanded, a procedure that is known as "fourth hurdle". Economic evaluation in general and pharmacoeconomic evaluation specifically can - as part of a complete/broad health technology assessment (HTA) - make a contribution to a more objective discussion. A review of the basic forms of economic evaluation points out the respective pros and cons, the main areas of application and the future development trends. The author's conclusion is that economic evaluation will become more important in course of the stronger attention towards economic aspects in the health care system. Thereby the future practical application of such evaluation results will depend on the further methodical development of these studies: A high methodical quality and a standardised methodology are important premises to gain reliable information and guarantee comparability.