Pharmacoeconomic evaluation has a tactical role in the early stages of drug development - as early as prephase I and phase I. Reasons for initiating analysis so early include the need to understand the economic viability of a product before large investments are made and to have a clear idea of the product's pharmacoeconomic advantages. Delegates at Faulkner & Gray's Drug Outcomes Conference [Florida, US; December 1994] heard Dr Anula Jayasuriya, Director of Outcomes Research at Syntex, elaborate on the early implementation of pharmacoeconomics and outline the concept of an economic‘me too’product.