Uncontrollable medicine prices in Pakistan

Saleem, Fahad; Iqbal, Qaiser; Baloch, Marvi; Shanker, Pathiyil Ravi

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)32120-1

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Transgender women and hijra 1 persons remain marginalized. They are often deprived of healthcare entitlements because of their gender identity (Ming et al, 2016). The fear of being stigmatized and ridiculed by healthcare professionals discourages them from using available healthcare services (Chakrapani, 2016;Ganju & Saggurti, 2017), which during the pandemic, is leaving them at an increased risk of not being tested or treated for COVID-19 (Deb, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of COVID-19 on Transgender Women and Hijra: Insights from Gujarat, India

Pandya

Redcay

2021

J. Hum. Rights Soc. Work

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Protecting vulnerable populations from the COVID-19 pandemic is a strategic imperative, especially when considering the potential vulnerability it has on a wide range of marginalized communities. Transgender women and hijra individuals who struggle to cope financially, mentally, or physically are vulnerable groups that require attention during the COVD-19 pandemic. Using a qualitative descriptive research design, 12 transgender women and hijra persons participated in semistructured telephone interviews during India's lockdown phases (1.0 and 2.0) of the COVID-19 pandemic. A snowball sampling technique was used to recruit study participants. Authors identified five themes: knowledge and practice; psychological domain; health conditions; individual and community experiences; and support. Findings offer broad insights into bolstering health concerns and access to healthcare services from public health and human rights perspective. An access to adequate healthcare services is a fundamental human right. The COVID-19 pandemic response without a human rights framework will have a major impact on the progress of the Sustainable Development Goals. Future studies of this population will illuminate unique considerations for healthcare workers while providing care to this neglected group.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of COVID-19 on Transgender Women and Hijra: Insights from Gujarat, India

Pandya

Redcay

2021

J. Hum. Rights Soc. Work

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“…As a control measure, annual increase in medicine prices was linked with Consumer Price Index (CPI), announced by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Government of Pakistan, with an allowable price increase of 4% for schedule drugs and 6% for non-schedule drugs. A few reports from Pakistan published in 2014 and 2016 claimed that the medicine prices were increased up to 100% [8–10], which was justified by pharmaceutical manufacturers mainly due to increase in operational costs associated with depreciation of Pak rupees against US dollar. Pakistan utilizes external reference pricing system by taking into account medicine prices of other countries as reference to set and control its medicine prices, which include, India, Bangladesh, New Zealand and United Kingdom, yet the prices are high and unaffordable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pakistan utilizes external reference pricing system by taking into account medicine prices of other countries as reference to set and control its medicine prices, which include, India, Bangladesh, New Zealand and United Kingdom, yet the prices are high and unaffordable. [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of prices, availability and affordability of essential medicines in Lahore Division, Pakistan: A cross-sectional survey using WHO/HAI methodology

Saeed

Saleem

et al. 2019

PLoS ONE

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Inadequate access to medicines affected by un-controlled prices is a major concern in developing countries, including Pakistan, which lacks comprehensive data on medicine prices. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the prices, availability and affordability of essential medicines in Lahore division, Pakistan. The survey was undertaken from November, 2016 till March, 2017 by including 50 medicines, 14 from the WHO/HAI core list and 36 supplementary medicines from national essential medicine list (NEML) at public (n = 16) and private (n = 16) health facilities. The prices, availability and affordability of selected medicines were measured using a variant of the WHO/HAI standard methodology available on HAI website and WHO/HAI manual. A questionnaire was used for data collection from Lahore division. The prices were compared to International reference prices (IRPs) and the daily wage of a lowest paid unskilled government worker was used to calculate medicine affordability. Data suggested poor availability of originator brands (OB) in public and private sector facilities, i.e., 6.8% and 55.0%, respectively. Similarly, low availability was observed for lowest price generics (LPGs), both in public (35.3%) and private sector (20.3%) facilities–far below the WHO global action plan targets of 80% availability of essential medicines by 2025. In private sector, 53% OB and 38% LPG medicines were found excessively priced. The cost of standard treatment with OBs was unaffordable, i.e., above a single daily wage (1.4 day’s wages) was demanded to purchase the standard treatment for the selected diseases in case of OBs medicines. Whereas, the cost of LPGs medicine required to purchase the standard treatment of the selected diseases was 0.6 day’s wage (median), below a single daily wage. In conclusion, access to essential medicines, especially at public sector facilities was affected by low availability, particularly of OBs in comparison to LPGs. Thus, the better availability of LPGs might be a rational basis of transition into a generic system of prescribing that may improve the availability and accessibility of essential medicines in Lahore division. Medicine prices in Lahore division were found higher in comparison to IRPs. Thus, the efforts must be made to formulate patient’s pocket friendly drug pricing policy that favors price cuts and improves affordability.

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“…On the other hand, cost escalating of health expenditure is a global problem [19,20]. Increasing national wealth alone does not necessarily increase national health [21,22]. Urinary lithiasis is one of the most common afflictions of modern society [23].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy and Ureteroscopic Lithotripsy for Upper Ureteral Calculi

2020

Signa Vitae

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This study aimed to investigate the efficacy, safety and cost of ureteroscopic lithotripsy (URSL) and percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) for large proximal ureteral calculi. We retrospectively reviewed the outcomes of 205 subjects with ureteral stones size ≥ 1 cm from January 2011 to December 2017. We divided URSL into two groups including URSL + S with Stone Cone and URSL without Stone Cone. Ninety subjects were treated with URSL, fifty subjects were treated with URSL + S and sixty-five subjects were treated with PCNL. The success rate was 73.3%, 96.0% and 96.6% in URSL, URSL+ S and PCNL groups, respectively. The treatment time in PCNL group (77.3 ± 19.1 minutes) was longer than URSL group (42.0 ± 16.6 minutes) and URSL+S group (55.6± 20.3 minutes), and the hospital stay was longer in PCNL (9.5 ± 1.6 days) group than in URSL group (2.4 ± 4.8 days) and URSL + S group (2.0 ± 2.4 days). The cost-effectiveness ratio was 124.6, 159.1 and 135.3 in URSL, URSL + S and PCNL groups, respectively. In conclusion, Stone Cone could increase treatment success rate but incur higher cost. URSL is considered as the best cost-effective option, and the patients without medical insurance tend to choose PCNL because of high success rate of treatment.

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Uncontrollable medicine prices in Pakistan

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Impact of COVID-19 on Transgender Women and Hijra: Insights from Gujarat, India

Impact of COVID-19 on Transgender Women and Hijra: Insights from Gujarat, India

Evaluation of prices, availability and affordability of essential medicines in Lahore Division, Pakistan: A cross-sectional survey using WHO/HAI methodology

Comparison of Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy and Ureteroscopic Lithotripsy for Upper Ureteral Calculi

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