Sufiza Ahmad Nur, Makmor-Bakry Mohd, Hatah Ernieda
Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Pharmaceutical Services Programme, Ministry of Health, Lot 36, Jalan Universiti, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Saudi Pharm J. 2020 Jul;28(7):850-858. doi: 10.1016/j.jsps.2020.06.003. Epub 2020 Jun 18.
Medicine price transparency initiatives provide public or government on information about the product's prices and the components that may influence the prices, such as volume and product quality. In Malaysia, medicine price transparency has become part of the government's strategies in ensuring adequate, continuous and equitable access to quality, safe, effective and affordable medicines. Since the effect of medicine price transparency depend critically on how prices are presented, this study aims to evaluate the stakeholders' perspective of medicine price transparency practice in the private healthcare system in Malaysia.
This study was conducted as face-to-face, semi-structured interview. Respondents from private pharmaceutical industries, community pharmacists, general practitioners, private hospital pharmacists, governments, academicians and senior pharmacist were recruited using purposive sampling. Using phenomenological study approach, interviews were conducted, and audio recorded with their consent. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis with Atlas.ti 8 software and categorised as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT).
A total of 28 respondents were interviewed. There was a mixed perception regarding the price transparency implementation in Malaysia's private healthcare settings. The potential strengths include it will provide price standardization, reduce price manipulation and competition, hence allowing the industry players to focus more on patient-care services. Moreover, the private stakeholders were concerned that the practice may affect stakeholders' business and marketing strategy, reduce profit margin, increase general practitioner's consultation fees and causing impact on geographical discrepancies. The practice was viewed as an opportunity to disseminate the truth price information to consumer and strengthen collaboration between healthcare industries and Ministry of Health although this may become a threat that affect the business survival.
Price transparency initiatives would benefit the pharmaceutical industries, consumer and countries, but it needs to be implemented appropriately to prevent price manipulation, market monopoly, and business closure. Future study may want to evaluate the impact of the initiatives on the business in the industry.
药品价格透明度倡议为公众或政府提供有关产品价格以及可能影响价格的因素（如数量和产品质量）的信息。在马来西亚，药品价格透明度已成为政府战略的一部分，以确保民众能够充分、持续且公平地获取优质、安全、有效且可负担的药品。由于药品价格透明度的效果在很大程度上取决于价格的呈现方式，本研究旨在评估利益相关者对马来西亚私立医疗系统中药品价格透明度实践的看法。
本研究采用面对面的半结构化访谈。通过目的抽样法招募了来自私立制药行业、社区药剂师、全科医生、私立医院药剂师、政府、学者和资深药剂师的受访者。采用现象学研究方法进行访谈，并在征得他们同意的情况下进行录音。数据逐字转录，并使用Atlas.ti 8软件进行主题分析，分为优势、劣势、机会和威胁（SWOT）进行分类。
共采访了28名受访者。对于马来西亚私立医疗环境中价格透明度的实施，存在不同的看法。潜在优势包括它将提供价格标准化、减少价格操纵和竞争，从而使行业参与者能够更多地专注于患者护理服务。此外，私立利益相关者担心这种做法可能会影响利益相关者的商业和营销策略、降低利润率、提高全科医生的诊疗费，并对地域差异产生影响。尽管这可能成为影响企业生存的威胁，但这种做法被视为向消费者传播真实价格信息以及加强医疗行业与卫生部之间合作的机会。
价格透明度倡议将使制药行业、消费者和国家受益，但需要适当实施以防止价格操纵、市场垄断和企业倒闭。未来的研究可能希望评估这些倡议对该行业企业的影响。
