ABSTRACT
Objective:To analyze the satiation of low cost medicine at present and provide suggestions for im-proving the low cost medicine policy since it has been conducted. Methods: The article uses the statistics from 24 provinces and cities to analyse the accessibility of low cost medicine with the angles of general condition,procurability and affordability. Results:The accessibility of low cost medicine is high through its policy knowledge is low. For pro-curability, there are only part of low cost medicine lacking in several areas momently; for affordability, the price of low cost medicine is affordable even through its price has been raised after the performance of policy. The reasons for shortage includes low price,check price transaction,lack of raw and processed material and small quantity demand of some medicine,etc. Conclusions:We suggest that government should improve the knowledge of this policy in hospi-tals and encourage low cost medicine in clinical applications. It also should lead companies to set the appropriate price and refine the purchasing system which will avoid the too high or too low price and help to ensure the amount and standard of companies that be selected in purchasing online. At the same time, government is supposed to strengthen the supervision on supply chain of low cost medicine and establish the communication mechanism for sup-ply system in order to guarantee the regulated supply of low cost medicine.
ABSTRACT
<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>At the present time, the government is considering to establish the independent financing system for essential medicines (EMs). However, it is still in the exploration phase. The objectives of this study were to calculate and estimate financing amount of EMs in China in 2014 and to provide data evidence for establishing financing mechanism of EMs.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Two approaches were adopted in this study. First, we used a retrospective research to estimate the cost of EMs in China in 2014. We identified all the 520 drugs listed in the latest national EMs list (2012) and calculated the total sales amount of these drugs in 2014. The other approach included the steps that first selecting the 109 most common diseases in China, then identifying the EMs used to treat them, and finally estimating the total cost of these drugs.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The results of the two methods, which showed the estimated financing amounts of EMs in China in 2014, were 17,776.44 million USD and 19,094.09 million USD, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Comparing these two results, we concluded that the annual budget needed to provide for the EMs in China would be about 20 billion USD. Our study also indicated that the irrational drug use continued to plague the health system with intravenous fluids and antibiotics being the typical examples, as observed in other studies.</p>