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Is the Brazilian pharmaceutical policy ensuring population access to essential medicines?
- Source :
- Globalization and Health, Globalization and Health, Vol 8, Iss 1, p 6 (2012)
- Publication Year :
- 2012
- Publisher :
- BioMed Central, 2012.
-
Abstract
- Background To evaluate medicine prices, availability and affordability in Brazil, considering the differences across three types of medicines (originator brands, generics and similar medicines) and different types of facilities (private pharmacies, public sector pharmacies and “popular pharmacies”). Methods Data on prices and availability of 50 medicines were collected in 56 pharmacies across six cities in Southern Brazil using the World Health Organization / Health Action International methodology. Median prices obtained were divided by international reference prices to derive the median price ratio (MPR). Results In the private sector, prices were 8.6 MPR for similar medicines, 11.3 MRP for generics and 18.7 MRP for originator brands, respectively. Mean availability was 65%, 74% and 48% for originator brands, generics and similar medicines, respectively. In the public sector, mean availability of similar medicines was 2–7 times higher than that of generics. Mean overall availability in the public sector ranged from 68.8% to 81.7%. In “popular pharmacies”, mean availability was greater than 90% in all cities. Conclusions Availability of medicines in the public sector does not meet the challenge of supplying essential medicines to the entire population, as stated in the Brazilian constitution. This has unavoidable repercussions for affordability, particularly amongst the lower socio-economic strata.
- Subjects :
- Economic growth
medicine.medical_specialty
Economics
Population
Health expenditures
Developing country
World Health Organization
Agricultural economics
Essential medicines
Drug Costs
Health Services Accessibility
Developing countries
Generics
medicine
Drugs, Generic
Humans
education
Pharmaceutical policy
health care economics and organizations
education.field_of_study
Public Sector
business.industry
lcsh:Public aspects of medicine
Public health
Health Policy
Research
Public sector
Health services research
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Drugs
lcsh:RA1-1270
Private sector
Pharmaceutical
Drug and Narcotic Control
Private Sector
Business
Drugs, Essential
Brazil
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 17448603
- Volume :
- 8
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Globalization and Health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....8156f1923f76a6123d404a5078d3bac4