title: Availability, Price, and Affordability of Selected Essential Medicines for Chronic Diseases in 11 Countries of the Asia Pacific Region: A Secondary Analysis.
abstract: Access to affordable essential medicines for noncommunicable, chronic diseases is critical in management of the diseases. This study aims to assess the availability, prices, and affordability of medicines for common chronic diseases in the Asia Pacific Region (APR). A secondary analysis of medicines price and availability data from the Health Action International's (HAI) database was undertaken using the standardized WHO/HAI methodology. The median availability of any medicine in the public sector was 35.5% compared with 56.7% in the private sector. Countries paid 1.4 times the International Reference Price to procure lowest-priced generics (LPGs) and 9.1 times for innovator brands (IBs). Patients would have to spend 2.3 and 0.4 day's wages to purchase one month's treatment of a chronic disease for IBs and LPGs, respectively in the private sector. These findings highlight the need to increase availability, reduce prices, and improve affordability of the medicines.
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Health Care Management, Key Lab of Health Economics and Policy Research, NHFPC, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China.|2 The Centre for Economic Research, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Haipeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Health Care Management, Key Lab of Health Economics and Policy Research, NHFPC, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: 3 School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, Sansom Institute, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vitry
authors.affiliation: 3 School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, Sansom Institute, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Tuan Anh
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Nguyen
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003132:Commerce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D018954:Drugs, Essential / Q000191:economics* / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D006801:Humans; D010139:Pacific Islands; D017149:Private Sector / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017150:Public Sector / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D018954:Drugs, Essential
keywords: Asia Pacific region; affordability; availability; chronic diseases; essential medicines