Person:

Emmerick, Isabel

Background: This study aims to rank policy concerns and policy-related research issues in order to identify policy and research gaps on access to medicines (ATM) in low- and middle-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), as perceived by policy makers, researchers, NGO and international organization representatives, as part of a global prioritization exercise. Methods: Data collection, conducted between January and May 2011, involved face-to-face interviews in El Salvador, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and Suriname, and an e-mail survey with key-stakeholders. Respondents were asked to choose the five most relevant criteria for research prioritization and to score policy/research items according to the degree to which they represented current policies, desired policies, current research topics, and/or desired research topics. Mean scores and summary rankings were obtained. Linear regressions were performed to contrast rankings concerning current and desired policies (policy gaps), and current and desired research (research gaps). Results: Relevance, feasibility, and research utilization were the top ranked criteria for prioritizing research. Technical capacity, research and development for new drugs, and responsiveness, were the main policy gaps. Quality assurance, staff technical capacity, price regulation, out-of-pocket payments, and cost containment policies, were the main research gaps. There was high level of coherence between current and desired policies: coefficients of determination (R2) varied from 0.46 (Health system structure; r = 0.68, P <0.01) to 0.86 (Sustainable financing; r = 0.93, P <0.01). There was also high coherence between current and desired research on Rational selection and use of medicines (r = 0.71, P <0.05, R2 = 0.51), Pricing/affordability (r = 0.82, P <0.01, R2 = 0.67), and Sustainable financing (r = 0.76, P <0.01, R2 = 0.58). Coherence was less for Health system structure (r = 0.61, P <0.01, R2 = 0.38). Conclusions: This study combines metrics approaches, contributing to priority setting methodology development, with country and regional level stakeholder participation. Stakeholders received feedback with the results, and we hope to have contributed to the discussion and implementation of ATM research and policy priorities in LAC.

Introduction: Distance learning methods have been widely used because of their advantages to continuing professional development processes. The Primary Health Care (PHC) is a strategy which has been implemented in order to improve the efficiency of health systems. Due to the need for access to medicines and technologies regardless of the strengthening of health systems, a new approach that better integrates both pharmaceutical services and health systems has been implemented. Case description This is a case study which consists of describing the process of restructuring, developing and implementing the second version of the Virtual Course on Primary Health Care-based Pharmaceutical Services for managers (CVSERVFAPS-12). The main objective is to strengthen the capacity of managers in pharmaceutical services, based on PHC at different levels of the health system, in order to support the restructuring and empowering of these services and, consequently, the health systems in the American region. Discussion and evaluation Many evaluation tools were applied to identify the achievement/improvement of planned competencies. The intervention proposals were collectively built and intended to be more than an academic exercise, looking forward to being implemented as a strategic intervention to promote changes in the pharmaceutical services of the American region. The main strengths identified for the second version of the course were related to the quality of the didactic material and content. Additionally, the tutors’ support was commented upon as a positive aspect. The main challenges faced in this rebuilding process related to the due dates of the activities and lectures as well as the time to capture and assimilate the content. Conclusions: The CVSERVFAPS-Pilot was reformulated and CVSERVFAPS-12 is consistent with the issues raised in the pilot course’s evaluation in 2011, which were successfully implemented. The use of the distance learning strategy, through a virtual environment, for the application of the Virtual Course on PHC- based pharmaceutical services for managers, is appropriate and confirmed its role in public policy promotion through effective retention and distribution of health workers.

Objectives: The Brazilian constitution guarantees the right to health, including access to medicines. In May 2004, Brazil’s government announced the “Farmácia Popular” Program (FPP) as a new mechanism to improve the Brazilian population’s access to medicines. Under FPP, a selected list of medicines is subsidized by the government and provided in public and private pharmacies. The aim of this study is to describe the historical stages of the FPP and to identify associated changes in the geographical accessibility of medicines through the FPP over time. Methods: It was performed documentary review and an ecological study assessing program coverage in terms of number of facilities and a FPP Pharmacy Facilities Density (PFD) index at national and regional levels from 2004 to 2013, using the FPP database. We used geographic information system mapping to depict a pharmaceutical facilities density (PFD) index at the municipality level on thematic maps. Results: A growth of the PFD index coincident with the phases of the FPP was noticed. In the public sector, the program started in 2004; by 2006, there was a sharp increase in the numbers of participating pharmacies, stabilizing in 2009. In the private sector, the program started in 2006; by 2009 the PFD ratio had increased substantially and it continued to grow through 2011. There was an increase in FPP coverage in most regions between 2006, when the private pharmacy component started, and 2013, but participating pharmacies remain unequally distributed across geographical regions. Specifically, the wealthy areas in the South and Southeast have higher coverage, with lower coverage mostly in the North and Northeast, relatively poorer areas with greater need for access to medicines, health care, and other basic services such as potable water and sanitization. Conclusions: There has been a substantial increase in the number of pharmacies participating in the FPP over time. This has led to greater program coverage and has potentially improved access to FPP medicines in the country. Nevertheless, disparities in pharmacy coverage remain among the regions. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40545-015-0030-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objectives: New antidiabetic medications such as insulin analogues and thiazolidinediones have been introduced over the last decade. This study compares the uptake of new agents in three emerging pharmaceutical markets: Brazil, China, and Thailand. Methods: Using longitudinal IMS Health sales data, we calculated the quarterly percentage market share for types of insulins and oral hypoglycemic agents from 2002 through 2012 in each country. New oral hypoglycemic agents included: alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, thiazolidinediones, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, and non-sulfonylurea secretagogues. Results: While China had the highest use of insulin cartridges and pens (85.6% in 2010), Brazil was the earliest adopter of insulin analogues and had the greatest use of these products overall (44.6% of the insulin market) in 2010, which then decreased by almost half by 2012. Together, sulfonylureas and metformin dominated the markets in Brazil and Thailand (~89% and ~96% respectively) over the 10-year period. Between 2002 and 2012, there was a shift in use from sulfonylureas to metformin; the market share of newer agents remained 10% or less in both countries. In China, however, market share of new oral agents grew rapidly from 13.1% to 44.4%. While metformin use was relatively stable in China (one-third of the market), sulfonylureas declined substantially over the 10-year period (41.5% to 20.8%). Conclusion: Given large cost differentials between newer and older insulins and among oral hypoglycemic agents, it is important to evaluate uptake of newer products over time. Uptake patterns differed in the study countries, likely due to different medicines policy approaches. Future research should evaluate how trends in use of antidiabetic products align with national clinical practice guidelines and pharmaceutical policies, as well as the impacts of different patterns of use on cost and clinical outcomes.

Background: Access to medicines is one of the major challenges in health policy. The high out-of-pocket expenditures on medicines in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region represents important barrier to affordable access to care for NCDs. This paper aim to identify key barriers in access to medicines for household members with a diagnosed chronic condition in three Central America countries. Methods: This was a cross-sectional analytic study, based on data from three household surveys using a common methodology. We examined associated factors to: (1) seeking care for chronic illness from a trained clinician in the formal health system, and (2) obtaining all medicines sought for the chronic conditions reported. Results: A chronic condition was reported in 29.8 % (827) of 2761 households - 47.0, 30.7 and 11.8 % in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, respectively. The three main chronic conditions reported were hypertension, arthritis, and diabetes. Seeking care in the formal health system ranged from 73.4 % in Nicaragua to 83.1 % in Honduras, while full access to medicines varied from 71.6 % in Guatemala to 88.0 % in Honduras. The main associated factors of seeking care in the formal health system were geographic location, household head gender, Spanish literacy, patient age, perceived health status, perceived quality of public sector care, household economic level, and having health insurance. Seeking care in the formal health system was the main bivariate associated factor of obtaining full access to medicines (OR: 4.3 95 % CI 2.6 – 7.0). The odds of full access to medicines were significantly higher when the household head was older than 65 years, medicines were obtained for free, households had higher socioeconomic status, and health care was sought in the private sector. Conclusions: The nature of the health system plays an important role in access to medicines. Access is better when public facilities are available and function effectively, or when private sector care is affordable. Thus, understanding how people seek care in a given setting and strengthening key health system components will be important strategies to improve access to medicines, especially for populations at high risk of poor access.

The Farmácia Popular Program (FPP) launched a subsidy system in Brazil, but in coexistence with the ongoing regular governmental access to medicines (Unified Health System (SUS) dispensings) mechanisms, causing overlaps in terms of financing and target population. This characteristic is quite different from most countries with medicines cost-sharing schemes. This paper aims to analyse the FPP under a health systems perspective considering the different health system levels. We analysed the findings from the study ‘Impact of consecutive subsidies policies on access to and use of medicines in Brazil – ISAUM-Br’, designed with the objective of describing and evaluating the impact of the government medicines subsidy policies implemented between 2004 and 2011. Patient share of copayment increased with the implementation of the intervention, which decreased the reference price and decreased with SNP (Saúde Não Tem Preço; zero copayment for patients). There was an increased number of FPP dispensations over time, but SUS dispensings remained the most important source for medicines, especially for hypertension and diabetes. FPP allowed the establishment of a well-designed pharmaceutical information system in the country. Despite the improvement on control mechanism, fraud remained a problem. There were important effects on the pharmaceutical market and sales of generic medicines. FPP has proven to be a very important policy for promoting access to medicines for hypertension and diabetes in Brazil. Examining this policy with a health system perspective has allowed us to highlight many of its important consequences, including for the first time a broad and consistent information system on access to medicines in the country.

Objectives: ‘Farmácia Popular’ (FP) programme was launched in 2004, expanded in 2006 and changed the cost sharing for oral hypoglycaemic (OH) and antihypertensive (AH) medicines in 2009 and in 2011. This paper describes patterns of usage and continuity of coverage for OH and AH medicines following changes in patient cost sharing in the FP. Study design Interrupted time series study using retrospective administrative data. Methods: Monthly programme participation (PP) and proportion of days covered (PDC) were the two outcome measures. The open cohort included all patients with two or more dispensings for a given study medicine in 2008–2012. The interventions were an increase in patient cost sharing in 2009 and zero patient cost sharing for key medicines in 2011. Results: A total of 3.6 and 9.5 million patients receiving treatment for diabetes and hypertension, respectively, qualified for the study. Before the interventions, PP was growing by 7.3% per month; median PDC varied by medicine from 50% to 75%. After patient cost sharing increased in 2009, PP reduced by 56.5% and PDC decreased for most medicines (median 60.3%). After the 2011 free medicine programme, PP surged by 121 000 new dispensings per month and PDC increased for all covered medicines (80.7%). Conclusion: Cost sharing was found to be a barrier to continuity of treatment in Brazil’s private sector FP programme. Making essential medicines free to patients appear to increase participation and continuity of treatment to clinically beneficial levels (PDC >80%).