Cost and utilisation of pharmaceuticals in Sweden

Do policy changes in the pharmaceutical reimbursement schedule affect drug expenditures?

“…This is in accordance with the results reported by Ljungkvist et al that noted that prices were initially lowered and the price level decreased by 19% on average for drugs covered by RBP [2]. This generated a reduction in expenditure of 400 million SEK during the first year, 1993, and another 50 million SEK during the second year [2].…”

“…Retail prices are built up of three components for prescription pharmaceuticals [2]. First there is the wholesaler price, i.e.…”

“…Since the early 1990s pharmaceutical expenditures have increased in most western countries and Sweden is no exception [1][2][3]. New drugs for treatment of conditions for which pharmacological therapy previously were not available and increased volumes sold are contributing factors [2,4].…”

“…New drugs for treatment of conditions for which pharmacological therapy previously were not available and increased volumes sold are contributing factors [2,4]. The increasing pharmaceutical expenditures led to new policies aimed to restrict the escalation.…”

“…During the 1990s RBP was introduced in several European countries [1,7,9,[19][20][21][22]. The average price per defined daily dose declined for drugs comprised by RBP in most countries [2,22,23]. However, in Germany and The Netherlands an increase in the price of the products not covered by RBP was reported [23].…”