Access to medicines for asthma, diabetes and hypertension in eight counties of Kenya.

OBJECTIVE: To assess access to noncommunicable diseases (NCD) medicines in Kenya for patients diagnosed and prescribed treatment for asthma, diabetes and hypertension. METHODS: Households in eight purposively chosen counties were randomly selected. To be eligible, a household needed to have at least one member aged 18 years or older who had been previously diagnosed and prescribed medicines for one of the following NCDs: asthma, diabetes or hypertension. Using a logistic regression model, we explored the relationship between patient characteristics and the probability that patients had the medicines available at the time of the survey visit. RESULTS: A total of 627 individuals were included in the analysis. The highest percentage of medicines availability was in households with diabetes patients (83.1%), followed by hypertension (77.1%) patients. The lowest availability of medicines was found in households with asthma patients (53.1%). The median household expenditure on medicines per month was US$7.00 for households with diabetes patients; it was US$4.00 for asthma. In general, strong predictors of having medicines at home was being older, having some education compared to no education, few household members, wealth, being diagnosed at private nonprofit facilities and having only one patient with NCDs in the household. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found that nearly three-quarters of patients diagnosed and prescribed a medicine for hypertension, asthma or diabetes had the medicine available at home. Access challenges remain, in particular for patients from low-income households and for those diagnosed with asthma.

Effect of Novartis Access on availability and price of non-communicable disease medicines in Kenya: a cluster-randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Novartis Access is a Novartis programme that offers a portfolio of non-communicable disease medicines at a wholesale price of US$1 per treatment per month in low-income and middle-income countries. We evaluated the effect of Novartis Access in Kenya, the first country to receive the programme. METHODS: We did a cluster-randomised controlled trial in eight counties in Kenya. Counties (clusters) were randomly assigned to the intervention or the control group with a covariate-constrained randomisation procedure that maximised balance on a set of demographic and health variables. In intervention counties, public and non-profit health facilities were allowed to purchase Novartis Access medicines from the Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies (MEDS). Data were collected from all facilities served by MEDS and a sample of households in study counties. Households were eligible if they had at least one adult patient who had been diagnosed and prescribed medicines for one of the non-communicable diseases targeted by the programme: hypertension, heart failure, dyslipidaemia, type 2 diabetes, asthma, or breast cancer. Primary outcomes were availability and price of portfolio medicines at health facilities, irrespective of brand; and availability of medicines at patient households. Impacts were estimated with intention-to-treat analysis. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02773095). FINDINGS: On March 8, 2016, we randomly assigned eight clusters to intervention (four clusters; 74 health facilities; 342 patients) or control (four clusters; 63 health facilities; 297 patients). 69 intervention and 58 control health facilities, and 306 intervention and 265 control patients were evaluated after a 15 month intervention period (last visit February 28, 2018). Novartis Access significantly increased the availability of amlodipine (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2·84, 95% CI 1·10 to 7·37; p=0·031) and metformin (aOR 4·78, 95% CI 1·44 to 15·86; p=0·011) at health facilities, but did not affect the availability of portfolio medicines overall (adjusted ß [aß] 0·05, 95% CI -0·01 to 0·10; p=0·096) or their price (aß 0·48, 95% CI -1·12 to 0·72; p=0·500). The programme did not affect medicine availability at patient households (aOR 0·83, 95% CI 0·44 to 1·57; p=0·569). INTERPRETATION: Novartis Access had little effect in its first year in Kenya. Access programmes operate within complex health systems and reducing the wholesale price of medicines might not always or immediately translate to improved patient access. The evidence generated by this study will inform Novartis's efforts to improve their programme going forward. The study also contributes to the public evidence base on strategies for improving access to medicines globally. FUNDING: Sandoz International (a subsidiary of Novartis International).