Chapter 5 - Regulation and control of drugs: Between prescriptive appriopriateness and limitation of public spending towards the goal of deregulating the pharmaceutical market

This article allows toanalyze drug testing from the standpoint of prescriptive appropriateness, as a tool and a resource to implement a welfare state system, in which the NHS provides an equitable access to innovative pharmaceutical treatments that might cause clinical benefits. In pursuing these interests it is necessary to ensure the due interaction between the economic and the legal profile. This implies the need of analyzing and balancing risks and benefits of experimental treatments with the objective of lowering health care costs for state budgetary purposes. In this respect, both economic process trends and social dynamics will bedealt with, given their link with market globalization, as well as compensatory measures, tax reliefs and settlements designed to streamline and reduce public spending in this area.