Measuring Availability, Prices and Affordability of Ischaemic Heart Disease Medicines in Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

BACKGROUND: This study is aimed to analyse the availability, prices and affordability of medicines for ischaemic heart disease (IHD) in Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. METHODS: A quantitative research was carried out using the methodology developed by the World Health Organization and Health Action International (WHO/HAI). The prices were compared with international reference prices (IRPs) to obtain a median price ratio. The daily wage of the lowest paid unskilled government worker was used as the standard of the affordability for the medicines. In this study, ten medicines of the IHD were included. The data were collected from 10 private medicine outlets for both originator brand (OB) and lowest-priced generic brand (LPG) in Bangi, Selangor. RESULTS: From the results, the mean availability of OB and LPG were 30% and 42%, respectively. Final patient prices for LPG and OB were about 10.77 and 24.09 times their IRPs, respectively. Medicines that consumes more than a day’s wage are considered unaffordable. Almost half of the IHD medications cost more than one day’s wage. For example, the lowest paid unskilled government worker would need 1.4 days’ wage for captopril, while 1.2 days’ wage to purchase enalapril for LPG. Meanwhile, for OB, the costs rise to 3.4 days’ wage for amlodipine and 3.3 days’ wage for simvastatin. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study emphasise the need of focusing and financing, particularly in the private sector, on making chronic disease medicines accessible. This requires multi-faceted interventions, as well as the review of policies and regulations.