ArticleBMC public health2014
Analysis of prices paid by low-income countries - how price sensitive is government demand for medicines?
Article in BMC public health, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
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- Evaluating factors associated with pharmaceutical price variation, dispersion and higher-tier pricing in Malaysia's public segmented procurement system: exploring market competition.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2026Article
- An assessment of the implications of distribution remuneration and taxation policies on the final prices of prescription medicines: evidence from 35 countries.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2025Article
- Drug Shortages in Albania: Pharmacists' Experiences and Perspectives.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Predicting pharmaceutical prices. Advances based on purchase-level data and machine learning.BMC public health · 2024Article
- The value-based price of transformative gene therapy for sickle cell disease: a modeling analysis.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Implementation of Medicines Pricing Policies in Ghana: The Interplay of Policy Content, Actors' Participation, and Context.International journal of health policy and management · 2023Article
- Relationship between pharmaceutical pricing strategies with price, availability, and affordability of cardiovascular disease medicines: surveys in Qatar and Lebanon.BMC health services research · 2019Article
- Challenges of Providing Access to Cutting-Edge Cancer Medicines in the Countries of Eastern Europe.Frontiers in public health · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAccess to medicines is an important health policy issue. This paper considers demand structures in a selection of low-income countries from the perspective of public authorities as the evidence base is limited. Analysis of the demand for medicines in low-income countries is critical for effective pharmaceutical policy where regulation is less developed, health systems are cash constrained and medicines are not typically subsidised by a public health insurance system
methodsThis study analyses the demand for medicines in low-income countries from the perspective of the prices paid by public authorities. The analysis draws on a unique dataset from World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Action International (HAI) using 2003 data on procurement prices of medicines across 16 low-income countries covering 48 branded drugs and 18 therapeutic categories. Variation in prices, the mark-ups over marginal costs and estimation of price elasticities allows assessment of whether these elasticities are correlated with a country's national income.
resultsUsing the Ramsey pricing rule, the study's findings suggest that substantial cross-country variation in prices and mark-ups exist, with price elasticities ranging from -1 to -2, which are weakly correlated with national income.
conclusionsGovernment demand for medicines thus appears to be price elastic, raising important policy implications aimed at improving access to medicines for patients in low-income countries.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.