# \[e-drug\] Re: Prices of pharmaceuticals (cont) **URL:** \ **Category:** e-drug\ **Created:** [August 30, 2002, 4:34pm UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-re-prices-of-pharmaceuticals-cont/14863 "2002-08-30T16:34:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Damian\_Silbermins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Damian\_Silbermins](https://talk.edrugplus.org/u/Damian_Silbermins)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 4:34pm UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-re-prices-of-pharmaceuticals-cont/14863/1 "2002-08-30T16:34:06Z")
E-drug: Re: Prices of pharmaceuticals (cont) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Argentina has two main markets: the hospital circuit and the pharmacies. Regarding hospitals, each sector makes its own deals with Big Pharma and therefore is very difficult to control, although supposedly since they buy in quantity, they should get substancial discounts. The pharmacies sell to the public according to the price set by the industry, which can be partially accessed through www.medicinaglobal.com (go to MEDICAMENTOS and then PRECIOS and search for the desired product). However, the consumer hardly ever pays those prices since they are often partially covered by either the public social security system or private HMOs. Please bear in mind that Argentina is currently the 70th country in Transparency International's list, and drug prices certainly reflect that fact. Furthermore, due to the unstable economic system and the continuous devaluation of the peso regarding the USS dollar, comparisons are difficult to make if currency from developed countries is used. If possible, I would be very interested to know what are your plans in order to compare different prices. Are you going to use a standard currency as the dollar, or are you going to use some type of index for each country, so that the prices do reflect the purchase ability of its consumers. Regarding the last item, I believe that the once popular McDonald's Big Mac index was rejected as reliable by The Economist a couple of years ago. Finally, prices usually have to do with volume, so perhaps it would be interesting to compare prices/volume of drugs in different countries rather than just going for prices. However, such information is very expensive and, to my knowledge, is only available through IMS Health (www.imshealth.com) Best wishes, Damian Silbermins, MD Capital Federal Argentina Mail: silbermins@fibertel.com.ar       d\_silbermins@hotmail.com -- To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@usa.healthnet.org To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.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@usa.healthnet.org Information and archives: [http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html](http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html)