Pharmacological economics and asthma treatment.

Editorial In an ideal situation, every person should 'receive his or her share of health care'. However, reality does not often match the ideal. Resources are finite while human beings have infinite wants and needs. Although it has been said that 'health is priceless', it certainly has its costs. The discussion regarding the inequity between how much needs to be invested in health care and the availability of resources has been a constant throughout the ages. Only the effort and the ingenuity of our public health administrators have managed to narrow this gap. Despite the difficulties in obtaining resources, it has been possible to achieve certain advances in health care: there is a steady increase in longevity and quality of life; rehabilitation has succeeded in helping people with disabilities recuperate functionally and professionally; and the cure rate has increased in various clinical situations. However, there is almost constantly a certain tension between consumers and health administrators, leading to a confrontation between the government, which prefers cheaper medications, and consumers, who prefer medications that are more effective. Given the complexity of such decisions, it was natural that a new science combining the principles of economics with those of medicine should arise: health economics, also known as pharmacological economics, or pharmacoeconomics. The basic principle of this new science is not to economize but to generate knowledge regarding how to make the best use of health resources while taking into account the needs of the community. Pharmacoeconomics, to some extent, is based on the fact that people need to make decisions about health care and want to know the worth of such decisions, as well as on the knowledge that bad decisions are generally costly. Pharmacoeconomics, in its current form, was conceived in 1978, when three professors of pharmacy at the University of Minnesota-McGhan, Rowland and Bootman-began to evaluate and to teach the concepts of cost-effectiveness of using aminoglycosides in burned patients. However, the term pharmacoeconomics was first used in 1986, by Townsend. In Brazil, socioeconomic inequality and strong governmental interference, together with gross technical and administrative inefficiency, provide the context for health care. This triad draws attention to the importance of achieving maximal efficiency in the use of material, human, and financial resources in order to generate savings. The allocation of medical resources creates the need to determine the safety, efficacy, and effectiveness of any planned intervention. Efficacy is defined as positive …