Effect of Price Factors on Drug Consumption in Hospital / 中国药房

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To probe into the regularity of drug consumption and to provide evidence for drug price control.METHODS: The actual purchase price,selling price,consumption sum and consumption quantity of all the drugs used in our hospital from 2003 to 2007 were taken as primary data to analyze the variation of drug price and consumption sum as well as the effect of the factor of drug price variation on drug consumption.RESULTS: The price fluctuation has big impact on the drug consumption,especially on the application structure of drugs characterized by the disappearance of the low price drugs from the market and substituting them with the "new drugs" which were prepared by altering dosage form,specification,package or brand name.CONCLUSION: It is advisable to adopt comprehensive measures rather than simple price reduction policy to control the artificial high price of drugs.