The Impact of a Pricing Policy Change on Retail Prices of Medicines in Egypt.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To describe the products with price changes and assess the impact of price changes on the products' price and affordability within the context of the Egyptian market. METHODS: A descriptive pre-post observational study was conducted. We selected March through June 2013 as the post-change observation period. A matching pre-change observation period, one year earlier, was selected to be consistent with potential seasonal variation in product use. RESULTS: It was found that 65.7% of the products with price changes were low-priced generic products. The overall average percent change in price was 24.7%. Before decree #499 implementation, the average affordability of the low-, medium-, and high-priced products was 0.25 days' wage, 2 days' wage, and more than 100 days' wage, respectively. After the implementation, the cost increase for the low- and medium-priced products was less than 0.1 days' wage, whereas the high-priced products' cost decreased by 11 days' wage. CONCLUSIONS: The policy change resulted in both price decreases and increases without substantive implications on affordability.