PRICE VARIATIONS, AVAILABILITY AND AFFORDABILITY OF SELECTED MEDICINES IN BANGLADESH

Md. Monirul Islam, Md. Aknur Rahman, Sonia Ferdousy, Tahmina Akter, Fahima Aktar, Jakir Ahmed Choudhury, Abu Asad Choudhury, Shaila Kabir and Md. Shah Amran*

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Ensuring proper medicines at a reasonable cost to mass people is a great challenge for developing countries. The purpose of the study was to make a comparative view of medicines in the context of price, affordability and availability. The data will help to improve the availability and affordability of medicines for the mass people of the country. Method: The current study was performed using the standard described by the World Health Organization (WHO) named “Price measurement, availability and affordability and price components of medicine”. Prices for selected fifty medicines were determined for the year of 2003, 2006, 2015 and 2019 to compare the price variations over the years. Medicine availability was measured by collecting data of manufacturer and from medicine shops, and affordability was determined by comparing the total cost of treatment of a disease. The major aim of the study was to show the price variations, availability and affordability of selected medicines in Bangladesh. Result: A vast difference was observed between prices of the most sold generics and the lowest price generic medicines available in Bangladesh. The prices of selected medicines were not so high in terms of international reference prices and the rate of increase of prices from previous years was reasonable and affordable by the population having the lowest income. There were several medicines for which the number of manufacturing companies was increasing in a very high rate and those medicines were also affordable to the mass people. Conclusion: It can be concluded from the study that the price variations of different medicines between the years were significant but the selected medicines were available all over the country and affordable by the people having the lowest income. A detailed survey may be performed on price components and mark-ups in medicines supply chain from the manufacturer to the end-user, that will help the policymakers to curb the price variations and make the medicines more available and affordable.

Keywords: Price variations, Availability, Affordability, Innovator brand, Lowest priced generic, Most sold.