Price and affordability of key essential medicines for children in Sri Lanka, a lower-middle-income country: comparison of two national cross-sectional surveys done 8 years apart.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To describe the price and affordability of key essential medicines for children in the private sector in Sri Lanka in 2017/2018, and compare the findings with 2009 data.

Design

National cross-sectional descriptive survey using the WHO/Health Action International medicine price methodology.

Setting and participants

Data were collected from a representative sample of 54 private sector pharmacies selected from all 9 provinces in Sri Lanka using a multistage clustered approach.

Main outcomes

Median price ratio (MPR) and affordability of originator brand (OB) and lowest priced generics (LPG) of 25 key essential medicines for children.

Results

The median MPR was 2.69 for OBs and 1.45 for LPGs compared with 3.7 and 1.35 in 2009. MPR of OB of all but o

SUBMITTER: Sri Ranganathan S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9944639 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature