Lack of commercial oral drug formulations for children in two hospital group purchasing agreements in france and Canada.

There are a limited number of commercial oral pediatric drug formulations on the market. The incidence of available commercial oral formulations for children has not been studied to date. This study compared the number and the characteristics of oral pediatric drug formulations listed on two hospital group purchasing agreements for the two large urban areas (e.g., Paris and Montreal), valid on April 1, 2006. Variables collected were the brand and the generic name product, the anatomical therapeutic chemical classification, the drug formulation, and the dispensing tool. Throughout this study, we identified that there was a total of 191 and 151 commercial oral pediatric drug formulations corresponding to 127 and 94 generic name products, respectively in Paris and Montreal. The three main anatomical therapeutic chemical classification classes are alimentary tract and metabolism drugs, systemic anti-infectives, and drugs acting on nervous system. There are only 47 generic names common to both group purchasing agreements. Also, our study provides examples of discrepancies between countries in terms of availability of commercial oral drug formulation for children. Market globalization should contribute to reduce these differences in the limited number of commercial oral pediatric drug formulations.