INTRODUCTION Policy-makers worldwide struggle to balance health with industrial policy objectives in the pharmaceutical sector. Tensions arise over pricing and reimbursement in particular. What health plans view as necessary to maintain equitable access to medicines, industry views as inimical to R&D and innovation. Australia has grappled with this issue for years, even incorporating the goal o...

ONGOING DEBATES IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL SECTOR ABOUT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, PRICING AND REIMBURSEMENT, AND PUBLIC RESEARCH INVESTMENTS HAVE A COMMON DENOMINATOR: the pursuit of innovation. However, there is little clarity about what constitutes a true pharmaceutical innovation, and as a result there is confusion about what kind of new products should be pursued, protected and encouraged through h...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE With constant incentives for healthcare payers to contain their pharmaceutical budgets, modelling policy decision impact became critical. The objective of this project was to test the impact of various policy decisions on pharmaceutical budget (developed for the European Commission for the project 'European Union (EU) Pharmaceutical expenditure forecast' - http://ec.eur...

BACKGROUND In recent years, there has been rapid growth in pharmaceutical spending in China. In addition, the country faces many challenges with regards to the quality, pricing and affordability of drugs. Pricing and reimbursement are important aspects of pharmaceutical policy that must be prioritised in order to address the many challenges. METHODS This review draws on multiple sources of in...

Scientific journals are most often used to disseminate the end products of research, but also have an important role as instruments of change. One year after the launch of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice, the focus of articles published has been on pharmaceutical health systems research, including contemporary issues related to medicines management, socio-behavioral aspects of...

This paper discussed the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in pharmaceutical product marketing in Nigeria. Data for the study was obtained from 76 pharmaceutical firms in southwest Nigeria which comprised of about 95% of the pharmaceutical companies that were into manufacturing of drugs in Nigeria. The categories of firms surveyed include retail pharmacy, combination...

OBJECTIVE To review original research studies published between 1990 and 2004 on the access and use of medicines in Mexico to assess the knowledge base for reforming Mexico's pharmaceutical policy. MATERIAL AND METHODS A literature review using electronic databases was conducted of original studies published in the last 15 years about access and use of medicines in Mexico. In addition, a manu...