During the last decades, the share of population using prescription (Rx) medicines has considerably increased. With the wider introduction of self-medication and the use of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, there is a real threat for drug-drug interactions between Rx and OTC medicines neither identified nor overseen by healthcare specialists. The objectives of this survey were to ascertain how ...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) represent the highest burden of disease globally. Medicines are a critical intervention used to prevent and treat CVD. This review describes access to medication for CVD from a health system perspective and strategies that have been used to promote access, including providing medicines at lower cost, improving medication supply, ensuring medicine quality, promoting...

Policymakers in developing countries are challenged to increase the availability and affordability of essential medicines. To improve access to medicines, the Government of India recently opened Generic Drug Stores in a few public facilities. These stores sell generic medicines manufactured by the public sector manufacturers. The prices are lower than market price. We examine the premise of the...

OBJECTIVES This study aims to conduct a descriptive analysis of the policy environment surrounding the generic medicines retail market in Portugal. The policy analysis focuses on supply-side measures (i.e. market access, pricing, reference-pricing and reimbursement of generic medicines) and demand-side measures (i.e. incentives for physicians to prescribe, for pharmacists to dispense and for pa...

BACKGROUND This study interviewed community pharmacists in Shanghai and Guangzhou for their perception of the popular categories of over-the-counter (OTC) Chinese medicines and the factors affecting customer preferences for OTC Chinese medicines. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was carried out in six main administrative districts in Guangzhou and eight main administrative districts in Shangh...

Medicines constitute a substantial proportion of out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses in Indian households. In order to address this issue, the Government of India launched the Jan Aushadhi (Medicine for the Masses) Scheme (JAS) to provide cheap generic medicines to the patients (http://janaushadhi.gov.in/about_jan_aushadhi.html). These medicines are provided through the Jan Aushadhi stores established...

OBJECTIVES Although poor reproductive health constitutes a significant proportion of the disease burden in developing countries, essential medicines for reproductive health are often not available to the population. The objective was to analyze the guiding principles for developing national Essential Medicines Lists (EML). The second objective was to compare the reproductive health medicines in...

PURPOSE To investigate the use of the WHO EML as a tool with which to evaluate the evidence base for the medicines on the national insurance coverage list of the Croatian Institute of Health Insurance (CIHI). METHODS Medicines from 9 ATC categories with highest expenditures from 2012 CIHI Basic List (n = 509) were compared with 2011 WHO EML for adults (n = 359). For medicines with specific in...

AIM Diabetes is a growing burden especially in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Inadequate access to diabetes care is of particular concern and selection of appropriate diabetes medicines on national essential medicines lists (NEMLs) is a first step in achieving adequate access. This selection was studied among LMICs and influences of various factors associated with selection decisions ...