Abstract
The insatiable appetite for safer more effective, but increasingly more expensive, therapy in the face of increasing government reluctance to feed this demand has put the study of drug utilization and pharmacoeconomics centre stage. Clinical pharmacologists are uniquely positioned to determine the cost benefit and utility of modern therapy and give impartial advice on safe, effective and economic patient care. To mark the Quatercentenary Celebrations of Trinity College Dublin, eight speakers addressed this theme in a symposium held in conjunction with the British Pharmacological Society Meeting in July 1992.