Availability, prices and affordability of essential medicines: A cross-sectional survey in Hanam province, Vietnam

<h4>Objective</h4> To measure medicines’ prices, availability, and affordability in Hanam, Vietnam. <h4>Methods</h4> The standardized methodology developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Action International was used to survey 30 essential medicines (EMs) i...

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Autores principales:	Huong Thi Thanh Nguyen, Dai Xuan Dinh, Trung Duc Nguyen, Van Minh Nguyen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/91f3914358bc49398ede8c3be485da0a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:91f3914358bc49398ede8c3be485da0a2021-11-25T06:19:39ZAvailability, prices and affordability of essential medicines: A cross-sectional survey in Hanam province, Vietnam1932-6203https://doaj.org/article/91f3914358bc49398ede8c3be485da0a2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8601520/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203<h4>Objective</h4> To measure medicines’ prices, availability, and affordability in Hanam, Vietnam. <h4>Methods</h4> The standardized methodology developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Action International was used to survey 30 essential medicines (EMs) in 30 public health facilities and 35 private medicine outlets in 2020. The availability of medicine was computed as the percentage of health facilities in which this medicine was found on the data-collection day. International reference prices (IRPs) from Management Sciences for Health (2015) were used to compute Median Price Ratio (MPR). The affordability of treatments for common diseases was computed as the number of days’ wages of the lowest-paid unskilled government worker needed to purchase medicines prescribed at a standard dose. Statistic analysis was done using R software version 4.1.1. <h4>Results</h4> The mean availability of originator brands (OBs) and lowest-priced generics (LPGs) was 0.7%, 63.2% in the public sector, and 13.7%, 47.9% in the private sector, respectively. In private medicine outlets, the mean availability of both OBs and LPGs in urban areas was significantly higher than that in rural areas (p = 0.0013 and 0.0306, respectively). In the public sector, LPGs’ prices were nearly equal to their IRPs (median MPRs = 0.95). In the private medicine outlets, OBs were generally sold at 6.24 times their IRPs while this figure for LPGs was 1.65. The affordability of LPGs in both sectors was good for all conditions, with standard treatments costing a day’s wage or less. <h4>Conclusion</h4> In both sectors, generic medicines were the predominant product type available. The availability of EMs was fairly high but still lower than WHO’s benchmark. A national-scale study should be conducted to provide a comprehensive picture of the availability, prices, and affordability of EMs, thereby helping the government to identify the urgent priorities and improving access to EMs in Vietnam.Huong Thi Thanh NguyenDai Xuan DinhTrung Duc NguyenVan Minh NguyenPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Huong Thi Thanh Nguyen Dai Xuan Dinh Trung Duc Nguyen Van Minh Nguyen Availability, prices and affordability of essential medicines: A cross-sectional survey in Hanam province, Vietnam
description	<h4>Objective</h4> To measure medicines’ prices, availability, and affordability in Hanam, Vietnam. <h4>Methods</h4> The standardized methodology developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Action International was used to survey 30 essential medicines (EMs) in 30 public health facilities and 35 private medicine outlets in 2020. The availability of medicine was computed as the percentage of health facilities in which this medicine was found on the data-collection day. International reference prices (IRPs) from Management Sciences for Health (2015) were used to compute Median Price Ratio (MPR). The affordability of treatments for common diseases was computed as the number of days’ wages of the lowest-paid unskilled government worker needed to purchase medicines prescribed at a standard dose. Statistic analysis was done using R software version 4.1.1. <h4>Results</h4> The mean availability of originator brands (OBs) and lowest-priced generics (LPGs) was 0.7%, 63.2% in the public sector, and 13.7%, 47.9% in the private sector, respectively. In private medicine outlets, the mean availability of both OBs and LPGs in urban areas was significantly higher than that in rural areas (p = 0.0013 and 0.0306, respectively). In the public sector, LPGs’ prices were nearly equal to their IRPs (median MPRs = 0.95). In the private medicine outlets, OBs were generally sold at 6.24 times their IRPs while this figure for LPGs was 1.65. The affordability of LPGs in both sectors was good for all conditions, with standard treatments costing a day’s wage or less. <h4>Conclusion</h4> In both sectors, generic medicines were the predominant product type available. The availability of EMs was fairly high but still lower than WHO’s benchmark. A national-scale study should be conducted to provide a comprehensive picture of the availability, prices, and affordability of EMs, thereby helping the government to identify the urgent priorities and improving access to EMs in Vietnam.
format	article
author	Huong Thi Thanh Nguyen Dai Xuan Dinh Trung Duc Nguyen Van Minh Nguyen
author_facet	Huong Thi Thanh Nguyen Dai Xuan Dinh Trung Duc Nguyen Van Minh Nguyen
author_sort	Huong Thi Thanh Nguyen
title	Availability, prices and affordability of essential medicines: A cross-sectional survey in Hanam province, Vietnam
title_short	Availability, prices and affordability of essential medicines: A cross-sectional survey in Hanam province, Vietnam
title_full	Availability, prices and affordability of essential medicines: A cross-sectional survey in Hanam province, Vietnam
title_fullStr	Availability, prices and affordability of essential medicines: A cross-sectional survey in Hanam province, Vietnam
title_full_unstemmed	Availability, prices and affordability of essential medicines: A cross-sectional survey in Hanam province, Vietnam
title_sort	availability, prices and affordability of essential medicines: a cross-sectional survey in hanam province, vietnam
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/91f3914358bc49398ede8c3be485da0a
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Availability, prices and affordability of essential medicines: A cross-sectional survey in Hanam province, Vietnam

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