In view of the objective existence of scarcity of resources, technical economics and engineering economics that take economic evaluation as the core have already developed into a relatively mature scientific theory and technology for decision-making in the 1960s, and have been widely used in many countries, industries and fields. However, it was not until the mid-1960s that economic problems in the field of medicine and healthcare were investigated as the study of “Estimating the Cost of Illness” [
8] conducted in the context of the rapid increase in medical demand and the sharp rise in medical expenditure, and then pharmacoeconomics was born in the late 1980s [
9]. Pharmacoeconomics is the science of studying the economic problems and rules of drug resource utilization in the pharmaceutical field, and how to improve the allocation and utilization efficiency of drug resources, so as to achieve the maximum improvement of health status with limited drug resources [
1]. PE evaluation is the most basic content of Pharmacoeconomics research. Economic evaluation theories and methods in other fields are the basis for the birth and development of PE evaluation. The difference between PE evaluation and economic evaluation in other fields is mainly presented in the identification and measurement of costs and benefits. However, the role of PE evaluation is consistent with the role of economic evaluation in other fields—that is, not decision-making, but to provide one basis for decision-making. Thus, what PE evaluation should do is the provision of economic evidence for the selection of drug-related clinical intervention programs in the healthcare system.
PE evaluation is conducted to identify, measure, and compare the costs and consequences (i.e., clinical, economic, and humanistic) of pharmaceutical products and services [
1]. The term “cost” is well understood, that is, the monetary representation of the resources consumed. The term “consequences” is used to describe the results and value of pharmaceutical interventions, and traditionally refers to “clinical (health) gains”, and its connotation depends on the goal pursued by clinical pharmacotherapy. The ultimate goal of clinical pharmacotherapy is to achieve healthy longevity [
10]. which refers to the greatest goal of drug use is the realization of “rational drug use”, defined as “patients receive medications appropriate to their clinical needs, in doses that meet their own individual requirements for an adequate period of time, at the lowest cost to them and their community”. Simply put, it is to ensure that medication is safe, effective, economical, and appropriate [
11]. Inevitably, the goal of “rational drug use” is the foundation of any healthcare policy-making, therefore, PE evaluation contains the evaluation of safety, effectiveness and cost of the interventions, which serves as the sub-objective of the economical goal. For the factors that are hardly to quantify, quantitative description should be used to reflect the differences, which is commonly used in economic evaluation in other fields. Thus, the core connotation of “clinical (health) gains” in PE evaluation is the clinical safety and effectiveness.