Status: Closed project

Introduction and Overview

The goal of this project is to generate evidence and information on pharmaceutical prices and their availability at pharmacies; the enforcement of regulations regarding prescriptions; as well as pharmaceutical industry practices, in order to inform and strengthen health policy.

Organizations involved in the research

Curatio International Foundation conducts the fifth wave of the survay that is supported by the World Bank.

Expected results and their application

The objective of this study is to continue the series of Pharma surveys. The fifth round employs the same international methodology for measuring medicine prices that was used in the previous rounds, and attempts to collect information on medicine prices and the physical availability of a pre-selected list of medicines (brand and lowest price generics, with and without prescription requirements).

The data allows international comparisons as well, using an external standard for the evaluation of local prices recommended by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) ‘International Drug Price Indicator Guide’. In addition, the survey also helps to determine and present an affordability trend among population.

Furthermore, customs data on import prices for survey medicines (except of local production) is obtained from the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs (MoLHSA). This allows for the calculation of retail mark-up percentages for survey medicines for both brands and generics.