Introduction to the pharmacoeconomics of herbal medicines.

This article explores the need to perform pharmacoeconomic evaluations of herbal medicines and assesses the extent to which this approach has been applied so far to these products. There seems to be no compelling need for pharmacoeconomic analyses of herbal over-the-counter medicines, but such analyses are certainly warranted for herbal prescription medicines that have a high level of reimbursement. Such preparations are used in Germany, in particular, where physicians prescribed ginkgo, hawthorn, St John's wort, horse-chestnut and saw palmetto to a value of more than DM50 million each in 1996.

Reporting format for economic evaluation. Part II: Focus on modelling studies.

This article presents the first version of a reporting format for modelling studies which is based on a general reporting format by our taskforce, which was published in the previous issue of this journal. The use of decision-analytical models for economic evaluations is increasing because, in practice, it is not always possible to derive information from prospective studies. However, the acceptance of modelling studies is generally lower than prospective studies not only because of the use of secondary data, but also because the reports of modelling studies do not always have sufficient transparency.

Reporting format for economic evaluation. Part I: Application to the Dutch healthcare system.

This article presents the first version of the reporting format for economic valuation that was created in 1995 by a multidisciplinary taskforce. The members of this taskforce come from a broad spectrum of backgrounds within the healthcare field and participated in the exercise voluntarily. The format presented should be understood as the preferred Dutch structure for the reporting of any study on economic evaluation.

[Evaluation of drugs: efficacy, applicability, effectiveness and efficiency].

In view of rising costs of drugs and the limited budget, government, institutes, researchers, prescribers, pharmacists and pharmaceutical industries should have a standardized assessment system at their disposal on which to base their pharmacotherapeutic policy. Evaluation can be achieved in four successive steps, taking into account both therapeutical and financial aspects. The first two steps, determining efficacy and applicability, represent the current system of evaluating drugs before allowance to the market.