[e-drug] Pricing Policies (cont'd)

["ZAHEER U.D.DIN.BABAR" <zaheerb@ucsi.edu.my>]

E-drug: Pricing Policies (cont'd)
---------------------------------------------

Dear Maryiam Khawaja

Information can be obtained from the following websites about medicine pricing
policies in different countries.

Medicine Policy in Netherlands
http://www.netherlands-embassy.org/article.asp?articleref=AR00000251EN

Pharmaceutical Benefits Pricing Authority (Australia)
http://www.health.gov.au/pbs/general/pricing/pbparpt.htm

Patent Medicine review Board sets the medicine prices in Canada.
http://www.pmprb-cepmb.gc.ca/english/home.asp?x=1

National Pharmaceutical pricing authority sets the prices in India,
http://www.medindia.net/buy_n_sell/pharm_industry/ph_orgainisation.asp

European Commission website has information about pricing policies of a number
of countries including France, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom. Following is
the website.
http://pharmacos.eudra.org/

The Netherlands Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies
http://pharmacos.eudra.org/F3/g10/docs/tse/Netherlands.pdf

Australia
http://pharmacos.eudra.org/F3/g10/docs/tse/Australia.pdf

New Zealand Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies
http://pharmacos.eudra.org/F3/g10/docs/tse/NewZealand.pdf

Finland Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies
<http://pharmacos.eudra.org/F3/g10/docs/tse/Finland.pdf>

Sweden
http://pharmacos.eudra.org/F3/g10/docs/tse/Sweden.pdf


WHO website is also a good one to start with,

http://www.who.int/medicines/organization/par/ipc/drugpriceinfo.shtml

Wish you all the best.

Cheers

Zaheer

Zaheer-Ud-din Babar, MScPharm (Doctoral Fellow)
Senior Lecturer
School of Pharmacy
University College Sedaya International
11 Jalan Manis 1, Taman Segar, Cheras, 56100
Kuala-Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: +6-3-91329326 ext 38
Fax +60-3-91329327
zaheerb@ucsi.edu.my














________________________________

From: e-drug-digest [mailto:owner-e-drug-digest@healthnet.org]
Sent: Wed 7/21/2004 12:40 PM
To: e-drug-digest@healthnet.org
Subject: e-drug-digest V1 #1273




e-drug-digest        Wednesday, July 21 2004        Volume 01 : Number 1273



[e-drug] Lancet: Antimalarial combinations
[e-drug] "Neglected" diseases but unrecognised successes
[e-drug] Global Fund and in-kind donations of ARVs
[e-drug] Pricing policies
[e-drug] Me-too drugs: AstraZeneca disappointed

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 02:40:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: e-drug@healthnet.org
Subject: [e-drug] Lancet: Antimalarial combinations

E-drug: Lancet: Antimalarial combinations
- ---------------------------------------------

Antimalarial combinations
Peter Gottfried Kremsner, Sanjeev Krishna Lancet 2004; 364: 285-94

http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol364/iss9430/full/llan.364.9430.review_and
_opinion.30244.1
[Repair long URL]
Multidrug resistance has rendered monotherapy for malaria useless in
most parts of the world, and has also compromised the usefulness of
many of the available combination chemotherapies. New antimalarial
regimens are, therefore, urgently needed. We review the various
antimalarial combinations that can be used to treat otherwise drug
resistant disease, and discuss what defines an ideal antimalarial
combination regimen.


This long article discuss the rationale for combinations of
antimalarials, their roles and their comparative efficacy.

Combinations discussed in detail are

Artemisinin-containing regimens

Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine

Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine+chloroquine

Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine+amodiaquine

Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine+quinine

Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine-mefloquine

Atovaquone-proguanil

Chlorproguanil-dapsone

Quinine+tetracycline

Quinine+clindamycin

Artesunate+amodiaquine

Artesunate+sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine

Artemether-lumefantrine

Artesunate+mefloquine

The authors conclude
The future
Multidrug resistance in parasites has forced the use of combination
antimalarial regimens. The need for effective treatments has thrown
together antimalarial combinations that have often worked better than
monotherapies, though sometimes only temporarily. However, we are
still far from discovery of an ideal regimen. The best options
available now include: mefloquine+ artesunate, which works well in
Thailand, although little is known about how this combination
translates to high transmission areas; and clindamycin+quinine, which
is effective in non-immune individuals, suggesting that
clindamycin+artesunate should also be studied.
Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine and fosmidomycin-clindamycin are
promising treatment candidates. Until better regimens become
available there are enormous demands on policy makers to choose
between existing combinations, many of which have not been
sufficiently studied for informed judgments to be made.

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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 02:41:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: e-drug@healthnet.org
Subject: [e-drug] "Neglected" diseases but unrecognised successes

E-drug: "Neglected" diseases but unrecognised successes
- ---------------------------------------------

"Neglected" diseases but unrecognised successes- challenges and
opportunities for infectious disease control
David H Molyneux
Published online July 13, 2004
Lymphatic Filariasis Support Centre, Liverpool School of Tropical
Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool L3 5QA
(Prof DH Molyneux)

[This article was published online by Lancet last week.  It is too
big to post in full on e-drug but the first section is below. The
full article can be accessed from the URL.  BS]
http://image.thelancet.com/extras/03art7073web.pdf

[Copied as fair use].

The Millennium Development Goals and a plethora of initiatives have
focused on the control of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
However, a large group of diseases has been confined to the "other
diseases" category by health policy makers and politicians. These
so-called neglected diseases are the viral, bacterial, and parasitic
infections of the tropics (often vector borne), together with acute
respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases of children.

   Despite the availability of cost-effective, stable, and successful
control or elimination interventions, large numbers of the world's
poorest people remain afflicted or are at risk from this group of
diseases.

The focus of health policy makers on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and
malaria, as well as emerging or reemerging diseases causes funding
for neglected diseases to be overlooked, with deleterious effects on
the social and economic wellbeing of the poorest quintile of
populations in the least developed and low-to-middle income
countries.1

Several organisations, partnerships, and initiatives have been
created to address the big three diseases-UNAIDS, International Aids
Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), Roll Back Malaria, and Stop TB culminating
in the establishment of The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria. The Global Burden of Disease study, the establishment of
International Development Targets and Millennium Development Goals,
the development of public private partnerships2 and the
Macroeconomics and Health Commission, however, have all emphasised
the relationship between disease, poverty, and development.1 In
parallel, financing mechanisms have moved towards sector wide
approaches (SWAPs), with emphasis on country ownership and basket
funding-ie, funding for broad health sector support rather than for
individual projects and disease-specific interventions.

   I want to emphasise that long-term successes have been achieved for
control of a group of disabling, debilitating, "neglected" diseases
over the past three decades- Chagas' disease (caused by Trypanosoma
cruzi),3 Guinea worm (Dracunculus medinensis)4 leprosy (Mycobacterium
leprae),5 lymphatic filariasis (Wuchereria bancrofti and Brugia
malayi),6 onchocerciasis (Onchocerca volvulus),7 poliomyelitis,8 and
to a lesser degree the schistosomiases and geohelminths in schoolage
children (usually 6-14 years). I will also contrast the control
programmes, biological features, and funding patterns for HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis, and malaria, and emergent and reemergent killer
diseases, with those of the chronic disabling diseases that have in
the past had programmes for control, elimination, or eradication.
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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 04:05:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: Carmen Perez Casas <carmen.perez@paris.msf.org>
Subject: [e-drug] Global Fund and in-kind donations of ARVs

E-DRUG: Global Fund and in-kind donations of ARVs
- -------------------------------------------------
[The Global Fund has finally decided not to accept in-kind donations of ARVs,
but to prefer hard cash. This is a wise decision, as donations could have
posed logistics problems and also could have reduced generic competition. WB]

[Please note incorrect versions of a similar message appeared on IP-Health and
E-med. This is the correct version WB]


July 7, 2004

The Global Fund board has decided not to continue exploring the possibility
of the Fund directly receiving in kind donations (IKD). People that have
been involved in the discussions years ago about in kind drug donations can
only rejoice when hearing this. It seemed already unbelievable enough that
the possibility was being seriously considered!

Indeed, evidence over decades has shown donations of medicines have caused
serious problems. Some of the most significant problems with donations have
been: drain on human resources when donations require burdensome record
keeping and control measures, products arriving with short expiration dates
meaning that they can not be used before they expire, and inappropriate
influence on drug protocols. The list of problems would be too long to write
here...

There is one more crucial aspect of IKDs though: they are sometimes used by
drug makers as an effective strategy to kill generic competition. Often
times a dominant supplier will drop their price or give a donation until
competitors give up, at which time prices rise.

No one is contesting the fact that if NGOs or individuals want to use
donation in answering to their needs and they have the resources to manage a
donation this may be a reasonable strategy on a very small scale, but
international institutions such as the Global Fund cannot possibly benefit
from an IKD strategy.

It is reassuring after the long debates that have taken place on this during
the last months that the Global Fund Board has abandoned the idea of massive
donations. Hopefully this subject is at last closed. More important issues
need the GFATM's attention.

regards

Carmen PÈrez Casas
Pharmaceutical Coordinator
Access to Essential Medicines Campaign
MSF
carmen.perez@paris.msf.org

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------------------------------

Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 00:29:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maryiam <maryiam@thenetwork.org.pk>
Subject: [e-drug] Pricing policies

E-drug: Pricing policies
- ---------------------------------------------

Dear e-druggers

We are trying  to collect different drug pricing policies of
developing countries regulated by the respective Governments with
similiar socio economic indicators and secondly of a few developed
countries so that we can develop a comparison paper in order to find
the differences and then to advocate pricing issue in Pakistan.
For this we require the pricing policies/ mechanisms instead of
surveys. If you could kindly provide some information or mention some
web links which contain this  information. I shall be really thankful.

Looking forward for an early response

Maryiam Khawaja
Assistant Project Coordinator
TheNetwork for Consumer Protection,Pakistan
E-mail:maryiam@thenetwork.org.pk

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------------------------------

Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 00:34:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Staffan Svensson" <staffan.svensson@pharm.gu.se>
Subject: [e-drug] Me-too drugs: AstraZeneca disappointed

E-drug: Me-too drugs: AstraZeneca disappointed
- --------------------------------------------->

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca [AZ] will cut down on research in
Sweden, unless the countries take a more favourable stance towards AZ
drugs.

This threat was made today by AZ's global drug development executive
Martin Nicklasson. Nicklasson said  "Why should we spend 11 billion
kronor [1.2 billion EUR] on research in Sweden when this country
doesn't appreciate the work of our 5000 researchers?".

The reason for Nicklassons chagrin is that the counties' drug &
therapeutics committees [DTC] recommend cheaper off-patent drugs such
as omeprazol instead of AZ's esomeprazol (Nexium) and simvastatin
instead of AZ's rosuvastatin (Crestor).

In reply to Nicklasson's statement, DTC chairman Ola Ohlsson said
that AZ should adapt to consumer demand and that health care doesn't
need more me-too drugs.

Source: Swedish public service radio
http://www.sr.se/ekot/artikel.asp?artikel=445969

Staffan Svensson, MD
Dept of Clinical Pharmacology
Sahlgren's Univ Hospital
Gothenburg, Sweden
"Staffan Svensson" <staffan.svensson@pharm.gu.se

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------------------------------

End of e-drug-digest V1 #1273
*****************************

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