E-DRUG: WHO and HAI launch new pricing study
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[WHO and HAI just launched this new pricing study at the WHO Assembly in
Geneva. WB]
Press Release from HAI
Unaffordable Medicines: Data from New Pricing Manual Confirms Problem
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Action International (HAI)
announce the release today of Medicine Prices, a pricing manual outlining
how to collect and analyze data for thirty widely-used medicines.
Medicine prices vary between countries and regions and historically,
relatively little has been known about how those prices are determined.
�In developing countries, poverty places medicines out of reach of one-third
of the population,� says Margaret Ewen from HAI Europe. �Better information
on prices, price differences and the factors contributing a medicine�s final
cost are essential if governments and other medicine purchasers are to find
ways of making medicines more affordable. �
The manual proposes a new price survey methodology, suggests how to analyse
price data, and identifies broad policy options to achieve more affordable
prices, including comparisons of innovator brand products with their generic
equivalents.
Before publication, the survey methodology was tested over two years in
Armenia, Brazil, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Peru, Philippines, South Africa and
Sri Lanka. These are a few of the findings:
- A one dose treatment of innovator brand ciprofloxacin for gonorrhea in
Armenia and Kenya requires 3 days� wages and 1 hour in Sri Lanka
- For the same treatment, if in Armenia you use the generic equivalent
rather than the innovator brand, you save 2.5 days pay
- In Kenya, the brand premium across 10 medicines is over 400%, primarily
because generic prices are very low.
- The consumer price of innovator brand nifedipine 10mg in private
pharmacies is about six times higher in South Africa than in Brazil
- In South Africa, all of the private retail pharmacies surveyed had
innovator brand omeprazole available but only 50% had the most sold generic.
Email the Documentation Centre at WHO EDM (edmdoccentre@who.int) to obtain a
copy of the manual. Data from the pilot studies will be available on HAI�s
web site (www.haiweb.org/medicineprices) in early June.
The manual is being published as a working draft and will be revised late
2004 following the completion of more field testing.
If you are interested in conducting a price survey or want more information
contact Margaret Ewen at HAI Europe (info@haiweb.org) or Andrew Creese at
WHO EDM (medicineprices@who.int)
Margaret Ewen
HAI
email: marg@haiweb.org
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