With ever increasing demands on healthcare resources, there is a growing awareness of the role of pharmacoeconomics and health economics in general in informing policy decisions in the health care sector. Policy makers and clinical practitioners charged with enhancing the value for money derived from pharmaceutical expenditure are increasingly turning to pharmacoeconomic evaluations to inform their decision making. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are facing requests to demonstrate the cost effectiveness of medicines which claim a therapeutic advantage but come at higher acquisition cost. The National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics provides education and training in pharmacoeconomics including an introduction to methods and the use of economic evaluation as well as analysis of drug utilisation data in the Irish healthcare setting