Pharmacoeconomics is a new discipline, which appeared at the end of the twentieth century, during the eighties, and which has been developing consideralibly since then, especially in the field of system health. Its most widespread investigation form has been the economic evaluation of drug therapy, using methods from health-related economics. Pharmacoeconomics identifies, measures, and compares costs, outcomes (clinical, economic, humanistic) of programes or specific therapies and determines the best alternative to be used considering the resources invested. Thus, the aim of this article has been approaching the guiding principles of pharmacoeconomics, describing the types of analysis and also considering how this discipline could be applied to different segments of society. The pharmacoeconomics, may be, an important instrument in taking decisions, because it introduces economic rationality among professionals in the health-care services, which the objective of complementing their clinic. However, the correct use of words and expressions, and a proper knowledge of methodology are essential prerequisites for both, a correct use and interpretation of the investigations.
Pharmacoeconomics; Economic evaluation; Cost-effectiveness analysis