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

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.