Pharmacoeconomics applied to chronic hepatitis C
Tatsch, F.F.; Sette, H.; Vianna, D.
Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases An Official Publication of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases 10(1): 51-54
2006
ISSN/ISBN: 1413-8670
PMID: 16767316
Accession: 049904015
Life expectancy has increased over the last century as it had never been before. This is the result of a combination of many favorable variables such as level of education, improved socio-economic environment and development of medicine. However, new improvements demand heavy investment. Thus, the incorporation of medical technology became a health and economic issue. The pharmacoeconomic knowledge field is being developed to help in the analysis of medical costs and patient needs. The applies to hepatitic C, a common and chronic worldwide disease. In this article, the authors describe the rational behind this type of health economic analysis and review a hepatitis C model. Overall, in a non-Brazilian scenario, it was demonstrated that peginterferon alfa-2a (40KD) is cost effective in the treatment of HCV disease.