Drug control and formulary management in Malaysia.

From the year 2000, the national drug expenditure has seen an increase from RM346 million ($91 million) to RM915 million ($241 million) in 2005. From the year 2004 to 2005, an increase of 13.3% was recorded [1]. Factors that may contribute to this increase include increase in drug prices, a growing and aging population, higher expectation of the public regarding equality in assessing therapy, long-term drug treatment and polypharmacy, improvements in diagnosis and treatment of diseases, and technological advancement that produces newer expensive drugs [2,3].