Country and regional variations in purchase prices for essential cancer medications

BMC Cancer

Research Article

Robert L. Seidman¹  Tim K. Mackey²  Raphael E. Cuomo³ 

[1] Division of Health Management and Policy, Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA;Global Health Policy Institute, San Diego, CA, USA;Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego – School of Medicine, San Diego, CA, USA;Division of Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego – School of Medicine, San Diego, CA, USA;Joint Doctoral Program in Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego – San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA;Global Health Policy Institute, San Diego, CA, USA;Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego – School of Medicine, San Diego, CA, USA;

关键词: Neoplasms;    Health policy;    Pharmacoeconomics;    Economics;    Global health;    Public health;    Health services accessibility;    Medicine;    Policy;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12885-017-3553-5

 received in 2016-12-22, accepted in 2017-08-14,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAccessibility to essential cancer medications in low- and middle-income countries is threatened by insufficient availability and affordability. The objective of this study is to characterize variation in transactional prices for essential cancer medications across geographies, medication type, and time.MethodsDrug purchase prices for 19 national and international buyers (representing 29 total countries) between 2010 and 2014 were obtained from Management Sciences for Health. Median values for drug pricing were computed, to address outliers in the data. For comparing purchase prices across geographic units, medications, and over time; Mann-Whitney U tests were used to compare two groups, Kruskal Wallis H tests were used to compare more than two groups, and linear regression was used to compare across continuous independent variables.ResultsDuring the five-year data period examined, the median price paid for a package of essential cancer medication was $12.63. No significant differences in prices were found based on country-level wealth, country-level disease burden, drug formulation, or year when medication was purchased. Statistical tests found significant differences in prices paid across countries, regions, individual medications, and medication categories. Specifically, countries in the Africa region appeared to pay more for a package of essential cancer medication than countries in the Latin America region, and cancer medications tended to be more expensive than anti-infective medications and cardiovascular medications.ConclusionsThough preliminary, our study found evidence of variation in prices paid by health systems to acquire essential cancer medications. Primarily, variations in pricing based on geographic location and cancer medication type (including when comparing to essential medicines that treat cardiovascular and infectious diseases) indicate that these factors may impact availability, affordability and access to essential cancer drugs. These factors should be taken into consideration when countries assess formulary decisions, negotiate drug procurement terms, and when formulating health and cancer policy.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017