E-DRUG: Esssential Drugs Monitor 33 Special Pricing Supplement
--------------------------------------------------------------
To E-druggers
The latest edition of the Essential Drugs Monitor (33) contains a special
supplement about the WHO/HAI medicines pricing project. The individual
articles are downloadable in small files
Special Supplement on Medicine Prices.
Andrew Creese sets the scene, explaining some of the realities and why
there is such a need to "shed light" on medicine prices.
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/monitor/33/EDM33_13_MedPrices_e.pdf
Kirsten Myhr explains the development and content of the new WHO/HAI
pricing methodology and the accompanying manual Medicine Prices - a new
approach to measurement.
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/monitor/33/EDM33_13-14_Measuring_e.pdf
What results does a pricing survey offer investigators at country level?
Jeanne Madden gives a brief overview of the field survey process, explains
the format of the Excel workbook for data entry, and discusses how to
summarise results for many medicines within a sector and compare summary
results in different sectors.
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/monitor/33/EDM33_15-16_WHOHAI_e.pdf
Anita Kotwani and Jeanne Madden provide details of the survey undertaken
in Rajasthan, India, which among other things showed the strength of the
generics market in India. In both the private and NGO sectors, consumers
are much more likely to find generic products than they are the originator
brand of these essential medicines.
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/monitor/33/EDM33_17_Availability_e.pdf
Jeanne Madden, Kumariah Balasubramaniam & Isaac Kibwage explain how, by
interviewing experts in local pharmacy systems and reviewing government
policies, survey investigators try to separate the component parts of
prices to the consumer.
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/monitor/33/EDM33_18_Components_e.pdf
Zaheer-Ud-Din-Baber and M. Izham M. Ibrahim describe a study carried out
in three Malaysian towns which investigated consumer attitudes on the
affordability of medicines and compared drug prices at different retail
pharmacies with the international reference price.
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/monitor/33/EDM33_18-19_Affordability_e.
pdf
Jeanne Madden's comparison of pilot survey results from different
countries shows some quite dramatic results. In Peru, for example,
originator brand drugs typically sell at more than 61 times the
international reference price.
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/monitor/33/EDM33_19-20_Comparing_e.pdf
The hidden costs of essential medicines are revealed by Libby Levison and
Richard Laing as they discuss the effects of add-ons such as
transportation and storage charges, import tariffs and taxes, and
wholesale and retail mark-ups in nine countries. The authors focus on
hidden costs which are under government influence and in particular those
incurred in the procurement process. The data show that hidden costs can
almost double the price of essential medicines between consumer and
patient.
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/monitor/33/EDM33_20-21_Hidden_e.pdf
Margaret Ewen runs through the new WHO/HAI medicine price database of
results from those who have done pricing surveys using the new
methodology.
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/monitor/33/EDM33_22_MedPriceData_e.pdf
Margaret Ewen looks at the mix of policies that are needed to make
medicines affordable and discusses the future of the WHO/HAI pricing
project.
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/monitor/33/EDM33_23_DataPolicies_e.pdf
A report on the first regional training workshop on medicine prices, held
in Cairo in October 2003, which examined the new pricing methodology and
looked at the viability of undertaking surveys in a number of countries in
the region.
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/monitor/33/EDM33_24_Workshop_e.pdf
For any E-Druggers who have not seen the manual this is available on
request or can be downloaded from
http://www.who.int/medicines/library/prices.shtml
We hope to carry a page of recent results from pricing surveys that have
been conducted in each Monitor in the future.
Although there has been a great deal of effort undertaken to do these
surveys we have not had much discussion about the implications of these
surveys. What do E-Druggers think about the price variations being
discovered?
Richard Laing (Medical Officer)
Policy, Access and Rational Use,
Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy,
World Health Organization
CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland
Tel 41 22 791 4533
Fax 41 22791 4167
E-mail laingr@who.int
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: e-drug-help@healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.essentialdrugs.org/edrug