E-DRUG: Global pill price check day - ciprofloxacin
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[To respond DO NOT CLICK REPLY. Respond to serena@haiweb.org ]
Collect the price of ciprofloxacin from a private pharmacy in your country on Nov 30
and we will map it against prices worldwide
Background
As an organisation active in medicine issues, we have been approached by the
HAI Global office in Amsterdam to reach out to our members to mobilise civil
society to raise awareness about medicine prices worldwide. HAI Global is
seeking your assistance so we can raise awareness about the price people pay
for medicines and the need for affordable medicines, by showing global and
regional price differentials of the same medicine across countries.
A world medicines’ price map will illustrate this concept, with ‘bubbles’ of
varying sizes corresponding to treatment costs in each country. In order to
map the treatment cost, HAI is asking all its partners and contacts
worldwide to go to the nearest private pharmacy and collect the patient
price of the same medicine on the same day. We need your support in order to
get a well populated map with as many countries as possible showing a
treatment price.
Could you please visit your nearest private retail pharmacy on *Monday
30thNovember 2009
and collect the patient price of a pack of
ciprofloxacin 500mg tablets/capsules and the pack size, for the originator brand and lowest
priced generic (if stocked).
Ciprofloxacin is an anti-bacterial agent, used to treat respiratory tract
and other infections. Surveys using the WHO/HAI methodology showed it was
commonly available in private pharmacies. The originator brand product is
manufactured by Bayer and called Ciproxin, Ciprobay, Ciflox, and Baycip is
different countries. The lowest priced generic equivalent product depends on
what the pharmacy stocks.
Please use the attached table to document the following:
- Your location
- The name of the lowest priced generic product you are recording (and
originator brand if it is different to the name in the table)
- The pack size
- The pack price in your own currency and the US$ equivalent on Nov 30.
If you are in a country where the patient does not pay the full price (e.g.
there is a patient co-payment system), please collect the full retail price.
If the medicine is not available could you please go to another nearby
pharmacy (that said, the intention is not to make this an onerous task).
We realise a lot of you travel so please collect the price in whatever
country you are in on November 30.
Assuming we get a good response from all our contacts, we would like to
repeat this exercise in March 2010 with a medicine commonly used to treat a
chronic disease such as hypertension or diabetes.
We very much hope you will take part in this exciting initiative. It will be
very interesting to see how different the patient price is across the world
for the same medicine on the same day. We will email you the URL of the map
when it’s populated and our analysis of the findings.
Please note that this activity will mark the start of a global advocacy
campaign aimed at raising awareness and mobilising civil society action on
the need for affordable essential medicines. We very much hope that we will
have the opportunity to work together with you at all stages of this
campaign: we will make sure to send you further relevant information and
consult with you about the campaign strategy and initiatives in due course.
*Please let the HAI Global team know before November 21st if you are able to
participate in this global pill price check day so they can send a reminder
closer to the day. (Please email serena@haiweb.org).*
* *
HAI Global
www.haiweb.org
HAI Africa <info@haiafrica.org>