Valuing knowledge of the cost and cost-effectiveness of medicines

Abstract

SummaryKnowledge of the cost of pharmaceuticals is an important step towards cost-effective prescribing, yet evidence presented by Singh and colleagues highlights a lack of awareness of the cost of psychotropic medication among doctors in one NHS foundation trust and failures in the dissemination of cost data. These findings support the existence of substantial barriers to the success of cost-effective prescribing strategies in the UK. The next, and more challenging step, is to explore knowledge of the relative cost-effectiveness of pharmaceuticals, since knowledge of cost alone is inadequate to ensure prescribing practices make a meaningful constribution to the efficient use of scarce health service resources.