Economic tools for ensuring access to medicines in Latin American countries

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Tobar, Federico | Martich, Evangelina

Affiliations: United Nations Population Fund Latin American and the Caribbean, Regional Office | ISAGS-UNASUR South American Institute of Government in Health, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Note: [] Corresponding author: Federico Tobar, United Nations Population Fund Latin American and the Caribbean, Regional Office. E-mail: ftobar@unfpa.org

Abstract: The greatest challenges for pharmaceutical policies in Latin American countries are related to the objective of promoting access for their populations. Around two thirds of the spending on medicine in the region is financed by household incomes, with a strong regressive effect on their financing. For these reasons, the economic regulation tools for controlling spending and prices of medicines take on singular importance. The present article examines a set of measures implemented by the countries in the region for the economic regulation of medicines centred on ensuring access to them, emphasizing those intended to control the prices of the pharmaceutical products and those oriented to moderating the spending on medicines in the health systems.

Keywords: Public policies, Latin America, access, medicines, medicine prices

DOI: 10.3233/PPL-140385

Journal: Pharmaceuticals, Policy and Law, vol. 16, no. 3-4, pp. 207-224, 2014