[Economic aspects of drug utilization]

The aim of a therapeutic medication is, first of all, to exert a positive influence on morbidity and mortality by using in the most economical way the available resources. The objective is to increase efficiency, i.e., to maximally attain a given objective with the available means or to reach a given objective with minimal resources. The efficiency must be effective on the level of the manufacturer, the distributors, the doctors, the patients, and the economy in general. For the manufacturer, efficiency means marketing safe and efficacious drugs at competitive prices and develop new and better drugs. At distributors' level, safety of distribution and information are expensive. For the doctor the therapeutic efficacy of a drug should guide his decision on the first hand, its price on the second hand. Thus the cost/benefit ratio remains without a doubt positive for the patient. In hospitals, on the one hand, the possibility of improvement of efficiency by means of technical progress is very limited, but, on the other hand, advances in drug therapy which allow out-patient treatment instead of in-patient treatment represent a great step forward for efficiency in the economic sector. Resources to face the unlimited demand for health care are scare and the era of "for health care nothing is too expensive" is over. Today, the political objective is to have an efficient health-care system in the frame of a healthy and efficient economy.