Citation

Mensa Sorato M, Davari M, Abdollahi Asl A, Soleymani F, Kebriaeezadeh A. J. Pharm. Health Serv. Res. 2020; 11(4): 321-333.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020)

DOI

10.1111/jphs.12379

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Access to quality essential medicines at affordable price to patients in the healthcare market is one of the main goals of universal health coverage and health-related sustainable development goals. Healthcare market is imperfect, and the government cannot ensure access to essential medicines if the market is left to operate under invisible hand control. This scoping review was conducted with intention to provide the clear picture on impact of pharmaceutical price regulation on access to essential medicines, drug innovation and launching.

METHODS: We searched articles written in the English language since January 2000 from PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Ovid/Medline and Google scholar with systematic search query.

RESULTS: Access to essential medicines, which is defined in terms of availability, affordability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of drugs, can be improved by pharmaceutical price regulation. Countries can use different price regulation strategies based on their healthcare objectives and priority healthcare needs. Country-specific pharmaceutical price regulation could not significantly affect drug innovation and launching. However, supportive strategies such as open public funding for drug innovation research, providing innovation awards and strong patent rights can counterbalance the effect of price regulation on innovation and drug development research in developed countries.

CONCLUSION: Regulating pharmaceutical pricing system is one of the key strategies to ensure access to essential medicines. Countries that have implemented pharmaceutical price regulation system (Germany, the UK, Canada and Iran) have achieved better access to essential medicines. However, the US and Ethiopian health systems that are unregulated concerning pharmaceutical pricing had a great challenge of affordability of essential medicines. Therefore, setting country-specific pharmaceutical price regulation system along with additional strategies to improve drug innovation is critical to ensure access to essential medicines. © 2020 Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPSGB)

Language: en

Keywords

human; government; suicide; systematic review; Review; quality of life; mortality; treatment outcome; health behavior; life expectancy; sildenafil; prescription; health care delivery; health care policy; paroxetine; health care facility; priority journal; health care access; health service; chronic disease; environmental factor; health insurance; drug industry; health care cost; health care; health promotion; health care personnel; drug cost; cost effectiveness analysis; drug research; drug marketing; hypertension; health care utilization; erectile dysfunction; consumer; health care system; social welfare; olmesartan; hydrochlorothiazide; social insurance; esomeprazole; peptic ulcer; clinical trial (topic); non communicable disease; global health; drug quality; drug development; economic status; access to essential medicines; drug innovation and launching; healthcare market; pharmaceutical price regulations; pharmaceutical pricing; pharmacoeconomics