ArticleBMC cancer2018
Availability of anticancer medicines in public and private sectors, and their affordability by low, middle and high-income class patients in Pakistan.
Article in BMC cancer, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Impacts of National Reimbursement Drug Price Negotiation on drug accessibility, utilization, and cost in China: a systematic review.International journal for equity in health · 2025Pooled it
- Availability, Affordability, Access, and Pricing of Anti-cancer Medicines in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review of Literature.Frontiers in public health · 2021Pooled it
- Regional health inequalities of anticancer drug accessibility under the National Drug Price Negotiation in China: a decomposition analysis.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Chronic myeloid leukemia in resource-limited settings: Navigating treatment challenges amid limited tyrosine kinase inhibitor access.The Journal of international medical research · 2026Article
- Invest where impact begins: recommendations from Breast Cancer Research Foundation Early Career Investigator Working Group (Part 1 of 2).NPJ breast cancer · 2026Article
- Evaluation of availability and affordability of lung cancer drugs in Central China: a cross-sectional study.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Pancreato-duodenal cancers in Pakistan: Patterns of presentation, disease burden and outcomes at a tertiary cancer facility.Journal of cancer & allied specialties · 2026Article
- Availability of essential medicines for non-communicable diseases: a scoping review of challenges and opportunities.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Advancing equitable access to innovation in breast cancer.NPJ breast cancer · 2025Article
- A survey of availability, price, and affordability of innovative negotiated anticancer medicines: a retrospective study in Jiangsu Province, eastern China.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic determinants of affordability of medication: a panel data econometric analysis in Iran.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Perception About Factors Affecting Patient Adherence With Cardiac Medicines: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Utilization and Determinants of Anticancer Drugs Under China's National Drug Price Negotiation Policy.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2025Article
- Availability, price and affordability of anticancer medicines in Jiangsu Province, China: a cross-sectional survey study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Changes in essential cancer medicines and association with cancer outcomes: an observational study of 158 countries.BMC cancer · 2024Observational
- Access to essential and innovative anti-cancer medicines: a longitudinal study in Nanjing, China.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Preliminary insights on the mutational spectrum of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in Pakhtun ethnicity breast cancer patients from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan.Neoplasia (New York, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Resilience and Post-traumatic Growth among Cancer Patients: A Moderated Mediation Analysis through Perceived Social Support and Stress.Psychology in Russia : state of the art · 2024Article
- Clinico-genomic findings, molecular docking, and mutational spectrum in an understudied population with breast cancer patients from KP, Pakistan.Frontiers in genetics · 2024Article
- Impact of the National Drug Price Negotiation policy on the price, usage, and affordability of anticancer medicines in Shandong Province, China.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundAvailability and affordability of anticancer medicines is a matter of great concern especially for low and middle income countries e.g., Pakistan. Prime focus of this study was to evaluate the availability of anticancer medicines in public and private sectors, and their affordability among patients with different income levels.
methodsA descriptive, cross-sectional survey was conducted in 22 cancer care hospitals (18 public hospitals and 04 private hospitals) and 44 private pharmacies in Punjab, Pakistan. All (n = 4400) participants were ≥18 years of age. Data were collected at different intervals and analyzed by using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.)
resultsA total of 4913 patients were approached, and 4400 responded to the survey (response rate = 89.6%). Non-hodgkin lymphoma (12.3%), breast cancer (8.6%), and leukemia (7.6%) were the most prevailing cancers. Conventional medicines like cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, and etoposide were the most prescribed medicines. Oncologists were reluctant to prescribe newer anticancer medicines due to high prices. Originator brands (OBs) were more readily available (52.5%) but less affordable (53.4%); whereas, lowest price generics (LPGs) were less available (28.1%) but more affordable (67.9%). Anticancer medicines were more affordable by the high income class patients than the low income class patients.
conclusionThe availability of both OBs and LPGs was greater at private hospitals and pharmacies as compared to public hospitals. The high income class had more affordability of both OBs and LPGs; however, LPGs were more affordable for all income classes.
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