Use of pharmacoeconomic studies in formulary decision making by Croatian Institute for Health Insurance

Abstract:

Pharmacoeconomics, a sub-discipline of health economics, identifies, measures and compares costs and consequences of pharmaceutical products and assesses financial impact of inclusion of new drugs into the formulary. In Croatian health care system, pharmacoeconomic analyses are increasingly used as a key tool in making formulary decisions related to new drugs. The Croatian Institute for Health Insurance (CIHI) requires pharmacoeconomic analyses to be enclosed with formulary application forms, but it does not provide any guidelines or framework for interpreting formulary decisions based on economic indicators. Pharmacoeconomic analyses in Croatia are mostly based on international pharmacoeconomic studies; however, the generalisability of these studies to Croatian context still needs to be evaluated.

Key words:
costs and cost analysis; Croatia; economics, pharmaceutical; formularies as a topic