Analysis of prices paid by low-income countries - how price sensitive is government demand for medicines?

作者：Srivastava Divya^*; McGuire Alistair

来源：BMC Public Health, 2014, 14(1): 767.

DOI：10.1186/1471-2458-14-767

• Medicines
• Low-income countries
• Pharmaceutical policy
• Health policy
• Government procurement

Background: Access to medicines is an important health policy issue. This paper considers demand structures in a selection of low-income countries from the perspective of public authorities as the evidence base is limited. Analysis of the demand for medicines in low-income countries is critical for effective pharmaceutical policy where regulation is less developed, health systems are cash constrained and medicines are not typically subsidised by a public health insurance system %26lt;br%26gt;Methods: This study analyses the demand for medicines in low-income countries from the perspective of the prices paid by public authorities. The analysis draws on a unique dataset from World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Action International (HAI) using 2003 data on procurement prices of medicines across 16 low-income countries covering 48 branded drugs and 18 therapeutic categories. Variation in prices, the mark-ups over marginal costs and estimation of price elasticities allows assessment of whether these elasticities are correlated with a country%26apos;s national income. %26lt;br%26gt;Results: Using the Ramsey pricing rule, the study%26apos;s findings suggest that substantial cross-country variation in prices and mark-ups exist, with price elasticities ranging from -1 to -2, which are weakly correlated with national income. %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusions: Government demand for medicines thus appears to be price elastic, raising important policy implications aimed at improving access to medicines for patients in low-income countries.

• 出版日期2014-7-30