The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) grew by 8% in 2003-04; a slower rate than the 12.0% pa average growth over the last decade. Nevertheless, the sustainability of the Scheme remained an ongoing concern given an aging population and the continued introduction of useful (but increasingly expensive) new medicines. There was also concern that the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement c...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C infection is a global public health issue. Chronic hepatitis C infection is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study is to describe the costs for occupationally-cased hepatitis C infections based on data from an accident insurance carrier. METHODS This study is a secondary analysis based on the Database of a German Institution for Statu...

The annual cost of medicines under the community drugs schemes increased from Euro 564 m in 2000 to Euro 1,961 m in 2009 before falling an estimated 8% by 2011. Escalating public health costs, fiscal stress and the unsustainability of the previous growth in expenditure has led to the increased use of pharmaceutical cost containment measures in Ireland. Collectively, these measures are estimated...

One commonly held explanation for high and rising health care costs in the United States points to the market power of health care providers. This third article of a 4-part series examines how the prices and quantities of health care services interact to influence health care expenditures. The article also reviews cost-containment strategies that are designed to reduce prices and quantities of ...

pharmaceutical industry is currently undergoing a transient phase with new orientation. loss of financial resources, presence of new therapeutic agents and increasing cost of research and development have called for a full.scale restructuring within the pharmaceutical industry to retain even the most basic competitiveness. the development of new technologies has been as one way out of the dilem...