Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31304021›Full record

ArticleJournal of pharmaceutical policy and practice2019

Association between medicine Price declaration by pharmaceutical industries and retail prices in Malaysia's private healthcare sector.

Nur Sufiza Ahmad, Ernieda Hatah, Mohd Makmor-Bakry

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. A systematic review of pharmaceutical price mark-up practice and its implementation.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2021
    Review
  4. Review
  5. Multi stakeholders of health and industries perspectives on medicine price transparency initiative in private health care settings in Malaysia.Saudi pharmaceutical journal : SPJ : the official publication of the Saudi Pharmaceutical Society · 2020
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Nur Sufiza Ahmad1Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Ernieda Hatah1Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.ORCID 0000-0002-6300-2965
Mohd Makmor-Bakry1Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAs part of the initiatives to increase price transparency for consumers, pharmaceutical industry in Malaysia have been encouraged to declare the wholesale and recommended retail prices (RRP) of medicines to the Pharmaceutical Service Department (PSD) yearly. However, the relationship between the voluntary price reporting practices and consumers' retail medicine price is unknown. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effect of the voluntary price reporting practice of pharmaceutical industry on retail medicine prices, factors that may affect consumer medicine prices in Malaysia's private healthcare sector, and the retail medicine pricing trend over 2011-2015.

methodsA yearly correlation test for a 5-year period was performed to investigate the association between the wholesale and RRP medicine prices declared by the pharmaceutical industry from 2011 to 2015 on the one hand and the consumer wholesale and retail medicine price database on the other hand. The median price ratio (MPR) was calculated by comparing the consumer retail medicine price to its international reference price. The Krukal Wallis test was used to analyse the pricing trend throughout the 5-year period, and factors that might elevate the MPR above 2.5 were modelled using binary logistic regression.

resultsA total of 2527 medicine price data were analysed. There was a strong significant association between medicine prices declared to the PSD and the retail medicine prices in every year of the 5-year period. Moreover, there was no significant increase in retail medicine prices throughout the 5-year period. The medicine types, retail location, type of manufacturer, medicinal indications, declared wholesale and RRPs significantly influenced the consumer MPRs that where > 2.5.

conclusionThe declared medicine price was found to have a significant association with the consumer retail medicine price. Thus, it may be a useful reference for consumers purchasing medicines in private healthcare settings. However, the government of Malaysia must develop strategies to increase medicine price transparency for price-control mechanisms in the private healthcare sector.

Indexed as

AffordabilityDrugsPharmaceutical pricingPolicyPrice informationTransparency

Identifiers

PMID31304021
PMCPMC6607540

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Registered trials

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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.