Pharmaceutical price comparisons across the European Union and relative affordability in Cyprus

Abstract

This paper performs price comparisons of branded pharmaceutical products in markets of eleven European Union countries. We follow a Laspeyres index approach, using Cyprus as the base country and analyse prices in the private and public markets and also consider biotechnology products separately. We find that Germany, Denmark and Austria demonstrate the highest pharmaceutical prices in the EU, followed by Cyprus. When adjusting for per capita income, Cyprus demonstrates the highest prices. Given that there is no universal health insurance in Cyprus, and that the country is facing a financial crisis, our findings underline possible affordability problems for patients. In order to remove barriers to access to medicines, pharmaceutical pricing regulation could be adjusted and price revisions should take place more frequently, and, most importantly, Cyprus must move in the direction of adopting universal health insurance.

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