Cargando…
Making medicines more accessible in China: An empirical study investigating the early progress of essential medicine system
OBJECTIVE: To assess changes in medicine availability and prices as well as subsequent affordability during the early years of the National Essential Medicine System (NEMS) reform in China. METHODS: Data were obtained from four provinces through a field survey conducted in 2010–2011. Outcome measure...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2018
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6072036/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30070998 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201582 |
_version_ | 1783343959018307584 |
---|---|
author | Song, Yan Bian, Ying Zhen, Tianmin |
author_facet | Song, Yan Bian, Ying Zhen, Tianmin |
author_sort | Song, Yan |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVE: To assess changes in medicine availability and prices as well as subsequent affordability during the early years of the National Essential Medicine System (NEMS) reform in China. METHODS: Data were obtained from four provinces through a field survey conducted in 2010–2011. Outcome measures were percentage availability, delivery efficiency, ratios of local prices to international reference prices (MPRs), and number of days’ household income needed to purchase medicines. Prices were adjusted for inflation/deflation and purchasing power parity. RESULTS: Under NEMS, the median MPR for essential medicines decreased from 3.27 times to 1.59 times from 2009 to 2010. The median medicine expenditure under standard treatments in 2010 equaled 1.06 days household income at a low-income level and 0.25 days household income at a middle-income level. A 25.67% reduction was observed in the average number of medicines stocked by primary healthcare facilities in 2011 compared with 2009 and the availability of essential medicines was 66.83%. During 2009–2011, suppliers could respond to 98.24% of the purchasing orders raised by primary healthcare facilities, and 89.32% of the order amounts could be delivered. CONCLUSIONS: The market prices of essential medicines greatly decreased in China after the establishment of NEMS and showed improved affordability in the short term. However, current medicine prices remain high compared to international reference prices. Medicines were often unaffordable for economically backward residents. Future policies still need to target medicine availability as well as affordability. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6072036 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-60720362018-08-16 Making medicines more accessible in China: An empirical study investigating the early progress of essential medicine system Song, Yan Bian, Ying Zhen, Tianmin PLoS One Research Article OBJECTIVE: To assess changes in medicine availability and prices as well as subsequent affordability during the early years of the National Essential Medicine System (NEMS) reform in China. METHODS: Data were obtained from four provinces through a field survey conducted in 2010–2011. Outcome measures were percentage availability, delivery efficiency, ratios of local prices to international reference prices (MPRs), and number of days’ household income needed to purchase medicines. Prices were adjusted for inflation/deflation and purchasing power parity. RESULTS: Under NEMS, the median MPR for essential medicines decreased from 3.27 times to 1.59 times from 2009 to 2010. The median medicine expenditure under standard treatments in 2010 equaled 1.06 days household income at a low-income level and 0.25 days household income at a middle-income level. A 25.67% reduction was observed in the average number of medicines stocked by primary healthcare facilities in 2011 compared with 2009 and the availability of essential medicines was 66.83%. During 2009–2011, suppliers could respond to 98.24% of the purchasing orders raised by primary healthcare facilities, and 89.32% of the order amounts could be delivered. CONCLUSIONS: The market prices of essential medicines greatly decreased in China after the establishment of NEMS and showed improved affordability in the short term. However, current medicine prices remain high compared to international reference prices. Medicines were often unaffordable for economically backward residents. Future policies still need to target medicine availability as well as affordability. Public Library of Science 2018-08-02 /pmc/articles/PMC6072036/ /pubmed/30070998 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201582 Text en © 2018 Song et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Song, Yan Bian, Ying Zhen, Tianmin Making medicines more accessible in China: An empirical study investigating the early progress of essential medicine system |
title | Making medicines more accessible in China: An empirical study investigating the early progress of essential medicine system |
title_full | Making medicines more accessible in China: An empirical study investigating the early progress of essential medicine system |
title_fullStr | Making medicines more accessible in China: An empirical study investigating the early progress of essential medicine system |
title_full_unstemmed | Making medicines more accessible in China: An empirical study investigating the early progress of essential medicine system |
title_short | Making medicines more accessible in China: An empirical study investigating the early progress of essential medicine system |
title_sort | making medicines more accessible in china: an empirical study investigating the early progress of essential medicine system |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6072036/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30070998 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201582 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT songyan makingmedicinesmoreaccessibleinchinaanempiricalstudyinvestigatingtheearlyprogressofessentialmedicinesystem AT bianying makingmedicinesmoreaccessibleinchinaanempiricalstudyinvestigatingtheearlyprogressofessentialmedicinesystem AT zhentianmin makingmedicinesmoreaccessibleinchinaanempiricalstudyinvestigatingtheearlyprogressofessentialmedicinesystem |