[Ip-health] HAI press release

[Wilbert Bannenberg]

Please post on IP-Health
Thanks

Press Release from HAI

Unaffordable Medicines: Data from New Pricing Manual Confirms Problem

The World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Action International (HAI)
announce the release today of Medicine Prices, a pricing manual outlining
how to collect and analyze data for thirty widely-used medicines.

Medicine prices vary between countries and regions and historically,
relatively little has been known about how those prices are determined.

=93In developing countries, poverty places medicines out of reach of one-th=
ird
of the population,=94 says Margaret Ewen from HAI Europe. =93Better informa=
tion
on prices, price differences and the factors contributing a medicine=92s fi=
nal
cost are essential if governments and other medicine purchasers are to find
ways of making medicines more affordable. =93

The manual proposes a new price survey methodology, suggests how to analyse
price data, and identifies broad policy options to achieve more affordable
prices, including comparisons of innovator brand products with their generi=
c
equivalents.

Before publication, the survey methodology was tested over two years in
Armenia, Brazil, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Peru, Philippines, South Africa an=
d
Sri Lanka. These are a few of the findings:

- A one dose treatment of innovator brand ciprofloxacin for gonorrhea in
Armenia and Kenya requires 3 days=92 wages and 1 hour in Sri Lanka
- For the same treatment, if in Armenia you use the generic equivalent
rather than the innovator brand, you save 2.5 days pay
- In Kenya, the brand premium across 10 medicines is over 400%, primarily
because generic prices are very low.
- The consumer price of innovator brand nifedipine 10mg in private
pharmacies is about six times higher in South Africa than in Brazil
- In South Africa, all of the private retail pharmacies surveyed had
innovator brand omeprazole available but only 50% had the most sold generic=
.

Email the Documentation Centre at WHO EDM (edmdoccentre@who.int) to obtain =
a
copy of the manual. Data from the pilot studies will be available on HAI=92=
s
web site (www.haiweb.org/medicineprices) in early June.

The manual is being published as a working draft and will be revised late
2004 following the completion of more field testing.

If you are interested in conducting a price survey or want more information
contact Margaret Ewen at HAI Europe (info@haiweb.org) or Andrew Creese at
WHO EDM (medicineprices@who.int)

Margaret Ewen
HAI
email: marg@haiweb.org