ArticleBMJ global health2017
Do changes to supply chains and procurement processes yield cost savings and improve availability of pharmaceuticals, vaccines or health products? A systematic review of evidence from low-income and middle-income countries.
Article in BMJ global health, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of pooled procurement of medicines and vaccines: identifying elements of success.Globalization and health · 2022Pooled it
- Fortifying essential medicines supply chains in Sub-Saharan Africa - the curious cases of Kenya and Uganda.Global health action · 2026Review
- Collaborating for Affordable Patient Access to Medicines: Review of the First Decade of the Beneluxa Initiative in Pharmaceutical Policy.Applied health economics and health policy · 2026Review
- [Price effects of global vaccine pooled procurement].Beijing da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Peking University. Health sciences · 2026Article
- Medicine price and affordability in China and selected ASEAN countries: a cross-country comparison with forward-looking implications for regional pooled procurement.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Drug price dynamics following changes in procurement method in the public healthcare setting in Malaysia.PloS one · 2026Article
- Impact of the national centralized volume-based procurement policy on antihypertensive drug procurement, price, and volume in Guangxi: an interrupted time series analysis of procurement data.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Supply chain management of health commodities and essential drug procurement systems at Sankhuwasabha and Kavrepalanchowk districts of federal Nepal.Journal of public health research · 2026Article
- Unequal budgeting and limited WHO AWaRe Access antibiotics in Punjab: procurement policy gaps in Pakistan's National Action Plan against antimicrobial resistance.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- Factors contributing to human and veterinary medicine shortages in developing countries: perspectives of suppliers and regulators in Namibia.Tropical medicine and health · 2025Article
- Multiple first-line therapeutic strategies to mitigate artemisinin resistance: cost analysis of a pilot study from a health system perspective in Kaya health district, Burkina Faso.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Intended and Unintended Impacts of '4+7' Volume-Based Drug Procurement on the Use of Drugs in China: A Natural Experimental Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The availability of essential medicines in public healthcare facilities in Afghanistan: navigating sociopolitical and geographical challenges.Health policy and planning · 2025Article
- Public sector pharmaceutical distribution system and its challenges: a case of a central Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals Supply Service and selected branches.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- The antibiotic procurement saga: a long-neglected stewardship target to combat antimicrobial resistance in Pakistan.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2025Article
- Medicine availability and affordability for paediatric cancers, China.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2025Article
- Healthcare professionals' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding China's National Centralized Drug Procurement policy: a cross-sectional study in Shaanxi Province.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
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- Bangladesh should engage the private sector for malaria elimination by 2030.The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia · 2024Review
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionImproving health systems performance, especially in low-resource settings facing complex disease burdens, can improve population health. Specifically, the efficiency and effectiveness of supply chains and procurement processes for pharmaceuticals, vaccines and other health products has important implications for health system performance. Pharmaceuticals, vaccines and other health products make up a large share of total health expenditure in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), and they are critical for delivering health services. Therefore, programmes which achieve cost savings on these expenditures may help improve a health system's efficiency, whereas programmes that increase availability of health products may improve a health system's effectiveness. This systematic review investigates whether changes to supply chains and procurement processes can achieve cost savings and/or improve the availability of drugs in LMICs.
methodsUsing the PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews, we searched PubMed, Embase, CINAHL and the Health Economic Evaluation Database to identify.
resultsWe identified 1264 articles, of which 38 were included in our study. We found evidence that centralised procurement and tendering can achieve direct cost savings, while supply chain management programmes can reduce drug stock outs and increase drug availability for populations.
conclusionsThis research identifies a broad set of programmes which can improve the ways that health systems purchase and delivery health products. On the basis of this evidence, policymakers and programme managers should examine the root causes of inefficiencies in pharmaceutical supply chain and procurement processes in order to determine how best to improve health systems performance in their specific contexts.
Identifiers
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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.