The Pharmacoeconomic Aspects of Antibiotic Stewardship Programs.

Optimal antimicrobial therapy must take into account the key factors in antibiotic selection, that is, spectrum, tissue penetration, resistance potential, safety profile, and relative cost-effectiveness. The least expensive drug is usually accompanied by other concerns, such as high resistance potential, poor side effect profile, pharmacokinetic properties that limit penetration into target tissue (site of infection), and/or suboptimal activity against the presumed/known pathogen. It is false economy to preferentially select the least expensive antibiotics solely because of its acquisition cost. Therapeutic failure and hidden costs may make an apparently less expensive antibiotic most costly in the end.