[Economical evaluation of drugs. A steering method for the pharmaceutical sector of the 1990's?]

Pharmaceutical products are important welfare goods both to individuals and to societies. Political authorities in Norway have high ambitions: pharmaceutical products should be of the best quality and available to people independent of their financial means. However, decreased economic growth, an increasing proportion of the health care needed by the elderly and accelerating developments in the medical field have led to a closer scrutiny of prices, costs and the extent of the public sector's responsibility in different parts of the health care system. Economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals is a supplement to the extensive and expensive clinical evaluations that have been going on for many years in the pharmaceutical industry. Information on cost-effectiveness of new products has internationally become more important and is needed in connection with subsidizing, prescriptions and distribution of drugs. The purpose of this article is to show how economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals could be used to increase efficiency in the Norwegian drug sector. The article also suggests how public guidelines could be established and how economic evaluations should be used, and considers the organisational consequences for the public sector.