Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Pharmaceutical Services Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia, 46350, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Res Social Adm Pharm. 2020 Oct;16(10):1359-1369. doi: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2020.01.002. Epub 2020 Jan 20.
Drug price transparency is defined as readily available information on the price of pharmaceutical drugs to either authorities or consumers. Price transparency, together with other information, helps define the value of drugs and enables informed decision making. It has also been used as a reference in drug price setting mechanisms in some countries' pricing policies.
To investigate the evidence available: 1) on government initiatives to mandate transparency in drug pricing worldwide, 2) on the reported effects of drug pricing transparency initiatives on drug price, and 3) on the limitations and barriers of the implementation of drug pricing transparency.
Databases such as Medline-Ovid, Cochrane Central Register, PubMed, and Science Direct were used to search for relevant literature from inception to February 2018. A manual search of grey literature such as policy papers, governmental publications, and websites was also performed to obtain the information that was not available in the articles. Using narrative synthesis, the results were critically assessed and summarized according to its context of drug pricing approaches.
Of the 4382 relevant articles located, 12 studies met the inclusion criteria for drug price transparency initiatives. Only 3 studies reported the outcomes on the regulation of drug prices. Two studies in South Africa showed that price transparency initiatives did not necessarily reduce drug prices. Another study in the Philippines indicated a reduction in medicines' price based on the effects of government-mediated access prices. The limitations and barriers in price transparency initiatives include fragmentation of the healthcare system and nondisclosure of discounts and rebates by pharmaceutical companies.
Drug pricing transparency initiatives have been implemented in many countries and commonly coexist with a country's pricing policies. Nevertheless, due to sparse evidence, the effect of drug price transparency initiatives on price control is still inconclusive.
药品价格透明度是指向政府或消费者提供药品价格的相关信息。价格透明度与其他信息相结合，有助于确定药品的价值，并使决策者能够做出明智的决策。在一些国家的定价政策中，它也被用作药品定价机制的参考。
调查现有证据：1）全球政府在药品定价方面实施透明度措施的情况，2）药品定价透明度措施对药品价格的影响，以及 3）实施药品定价透明度的限制和障碍。
使用 Medline-Ovid、Cochrane 中央登记、PubMed 和 Science Direct 等数据库，从创建至 2018 年 2 月搜索相关文献。还对政策文件、政府出版物和网站等灰色文献进行了手动搜索，以获取文章中未涵盖的信息。采用叙述性综合法，根据药品定价方法的背景，对结果进行批判性评估和总结。
在 4382 篇相关文章中，有 12 项研究符合药品价格透明度措施的纳入标准。仅有 3 项研究报告了药品价格调控的结果。南非的两项研究表明，价格透明度措施不一定会降低药品价格。菲律宾的另一项研究表明，政府介导的准入价格对药品价格的降低产生了影响。价格透明度措施的限制和障碍包括医疗保健系统的碎片化以及制药公司不披露折扣和回扣。
许多国家已经实施了药品定价透明度措施，并且通常与国家的定价政策并存。然而，由于证据稀疏，药品价格透明度措施对价格控制的影响仍不确定。
