We read with interest the commentary by Babar and Scahill on the role of pharmaco-economics in developing countries recently published in PharmacoEconomics. The authors argued for a model that should be used to assess the applicability of pharmacoeconomics in formulary development in a developing country based on their health system. It is argued that price control and generic substitution are better options than pharmacoeconomics in this context.While we appreciate the authors' thoughts on the issue, we do find their arguments simplistic and flawed.First, the nature of the model they propose for assessing applicability is not clear. Will it be a decision, policy or statistical model? The suggested components of the model (i.e. health and pharmaceutical indicators, evidence-based pharmacy system research, perception of pharmacoeconomics, socioeconomic status of the country concerned, recent pharmaceutical reform and maturity of health system) are even more bewildering. These components are related more to health policy than to the microeconomic decisions of formulary management.
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