We are happy to announce the metamorphosis of the Southern Med Review (SMR) into the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice [1-3]. As an open access journal published by BioMed Central [4-7], Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice (JoPPP) will reach a greater number of readers. Open access will lead to a wider readership, higher downloads, higher citations, and a higher Impact Fac...

BACKGROUND Healthcare system reform of Sanming city has become a leading healthcare reform model in China. It has developed a rigorous pharmaceutical reform consisted of the Zero Mark-up Drug Policy and the Centralized Procurement of Medicine Policy to bring down drug expenses and total health expenditures. However, despite the credit and much attention have been given to Sanming's pharmaceutic...

Iran`s pharmaceutical products market as one of the major markets of the country has been faced with fluctuations over time. Suitable market selection is necessary for stability of pharmaceutical exports. Study of the global market structure of this product leads to policy makers in development, production, and trade of pharmaceuticals and finally increases country’s share of the world pharmace...

Responses to the global financial crisis According to a survey with the PPRI (Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Information) network (see also E4), a total of 445 measures (related to pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement) were reported during the period of 2010-2014. This corresponds to, on average, nearly 13 measures per country, but with great variability between the countries (ran...

OBJECTIVES Pharmaceutical policies have become paramount in China and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region because of rapidly rising expenditures on drugs. The problems are especially acute in China because expenditures on drugs are typically so large. This article intends to review effects of the policy of drug expenditure containment with primary reference to China, and it proposes some...

Poor drug access continues to be one of the main global health problems. Global inequalities in access to pharmaceuticals are caused by a number of variables including poverty, high drug prices, poor health infrastructure, and fraud and corruption--the latter being the subject of this article. There is growing recognition among policy makers that corruption in the pharmaceutical system can wast...