Pharmacoeconomics

History

Pharmacoeconomics consists of two root words: pharmaco and economic. The word pharmaco comes from the Greek word pharmakon, which means poisons or drugs. The word economic comes from two Greek words: (1) oikos, meaning the household or family estates, and (2) nomos, meaning rules, natural laws, or laws. As these root words imply, pharmacoeconomics derives its theoretical framework from principles of economics and social sciences and integrates them with pharmaceutical sciences.

Pharmacoeconomics is sometimes viewed as a subdiscipline of health economics. The basic concepts of economic analyses in pharmacy were introduced in the 1970s, and the foundation of pharmacoeconomics was set in the 1980s. William McGhan, C. R. Rowland, and J. Lyle Bootman at the University of Minnesota introduced cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis to pharmacy students as early as 1976, published the concepts of economic analysis in pharmacy in the American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy in 1978, and reported the first cost-benefit analysis related to pharmaceutical care in 1979. The term pharmacoeconomics was first introduced in 1987 in an article titled “Postmarketing Drug Research and Development,” by Raymond Townsend, who advocated the need for pharmacoeconomic research. Later, Bootman, Townsend, and McGhan edited a book titled Principles of Pharmacoeconomics, which is the first textbook in this discipline.

In the 1970s, pharmacoeconomic education and research in the United States were developed for graduate students and researchers. Since the 1990s, more and more pharmacy schools include this discipline as an elective course in the professional pharmacy curriculum. Recent surveys indicate that 80% of pharmacy schools in the United States offer pharmacoeconomics at the professional level and 52% of pharmacy schools outside the United States offer this course at either the graduate or the [Page 876]professional level or both. Outside the academic field, there has been an increase in clinical applications of pharmacoeconomic analysis to facilitate medical decision making. This indicates that clinicians are getting more involved in pharmacoeconomic research. Overall, pharmacoeconomics has received more attention clinically and globally among researchers and healthcare professionals and is becoming an important part of the pharmacy curriculum.

Pharmacoeconomic Research