[Drug insurance coverage in Iran and some selected countries: a comparative study]

Introduction: in Iran, the compilation council of drug, having an advisory role, is responsible to cover medicine costs for health insurances. Health Insurance High Council also acts as the final decision maker about the admission of new drugs. This article studies how new drugs in Iran's health insurances are covered compared with some selected countries

Methods: after collecting drug acceptance criteria from studies in selected countries, the importance of these criteria were measured by Iran's health system experts by means of a questionnaire. The differences and the reimbursement mechanism were investigated using 30 drug samples

Results: there are specialized organizations in selected countries that decide for the new obligations of basic health insurances based on clinical and economical aspects of medicine performance criteria directly or as an advisory arm. Health insurance companies usually contract conditionally to protect new drugs commitment with the drug manufacturing companies

Conclusions: in spite of low health and economical indicators of Iran compared with the selected countries, acceptance and continuing to repay the cost of pharmaceuticals are not associated with the amount of performance and the effects of the drugs. The acceptance of 43 percentage of drug samples is conditional to being a domestic production, the organization's budget, low price and the disease epidemiology. 57% of the samples did not have any insurance coverage. The new drug reimbursement decisions in Iran's health insurance usually last a long time [at least seven years] after accepting the drug in insurance companies of advanced countries. Iranian base health insurance companies are not actively involved in drug pricing. They control most of the reimbursement costs of drug from the demand side instead of the supply side

[Water extract of juglans regia L. and diabetes mellitus in Iranian traditional medicine]

There are many reports about the glucose lowering effects of medicinal plants in animal models. There are a some reports in Iranian traditional medicine about glucose lowering effect of septum water extract of Juglans Regia L. In the present study, effect of aqueous extract of the septum of Juglans Regia L. on plasma glucose is assessed. After preparing the water extract of Juglans Regia L. and concentrating of it the lyophilized extract, was tested in diabetic [ip injection of streptozocin] and normal rats. Comparison between groups was made by analysis of variance [ANOVA] and the differences between the means assessed using student's t test. In an oral glucose tolerance test [OGGT], a single oral administration of the water extract at doses of 50, 250 and 750 mg/kg body weight didn't lowered the plasma glucose level in the normal rats. Although that insulin administration [5IU/kg] caused a reduction of serum glucose[P<0.001], none of the extract doses [1000, 750, 500, 250mg/Kg] could cause a significant reduction in such level [P>0.005]. These results demonstrated that the water extract of the septum of Juglans regia's fruit didn't have a significant hypoglycemic effect in rats

Anti-inflammatory effects of total extract of Curcuma amada Roxb. in a rheumatoid arthritis rat model

Joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis are among common and debilitating disease of the time. Current treatments are limited due to lack of efficacy and high incidence of side effects. Therefore, there is an increasing need for alternative drug treatment strategies specially in the area of medicinal plants. Curcuma amada Roxb. Which belongs to the family of zingiberaceae, has been traditionally used for inflammation and arthritic pain in China and India. Very little data is available about efficacy of this plant in controlled studies. In this study, effect of total extract of Curcuma amada [C.A.] were assessed on inflammation. Male rats were injected [s.c] with complete freund's adjuvant [50 mg/10 cc heat killed and dried mycobacterium tuberculosis, suspended in mineral oil [Arlacel A and light paraffin]. Injections were made in the right ankle foot of tibio tarsal joint region. On day 15 following adjuvant administration, animals were treated [i.p] with a 100 mg/kg dose of the extract daily for 15 days. Joint diameter, arthritic Index, body weight, WBC count and ESR were recorded. The data indicated that the extract could significantly [p<0.05] reduce ESR, WBC, joint diameter and arthritic Index of treated animals compared with control animals. Further studies are underway to determine antiarthritic potentials and safety of the extract