Survey on the availability, price and affordability of selected essential medicines for non-communicable diseases in community pharmacies of Kathmandu valley

BACKGROUND: The access to essential medicines for non-communicable disease treatment is unacceptably low worldwide. The fundamental right to health cannot be fulfilled without equitable access to essential medicines. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was carried out in 94 community pharmacies of Kathmandu valley. Non-probability quota sampling method was adopted for the purpose. Village Development Committees with more than 5000 populations were included in the study. The availability of the selected essential medicines, their price and producer identity were observed. Data entry and analysis were carried out in Microsoft Excel and Statistical package for social science. RESULT: The availability of the essential medicines was not 100% in Kathmandu valley. High competition and high price variation were seen in metformin 500 mg (254.6%) and atorvastatin 10 mg (327.6%). The study showed that maximum (54.7%) brands were manufactured in Nepal. Furthermore, atorvastatin 10 mg (0.6 day wage) was found to be quite expensive, and glibenclamide 5 mg (0.1 day wage) was the cheapest one for diabetes mellitus treatment for 1 month of treatment period compared to daily wages of other essential medicines. CONCLUSION: The availability of the selected essential medicines was found to be ununiform and insufficient in the entire region. High competition was observed in the products with high price variation, and the access to cost-effective brand was poor. Furthermore, it was found that government salary is affordable to treat non-communicable disease with the help of the essential medicines.