Lee Kah Seng, Kassab Yaman Walid, Taha Nur Akmar, Zainal Zainol Akbar
Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Cyberjaya, Cyberjaya 63000, Selangor, Malaysia.
Pharmacy (Basel). 2020 Dec 23;9(1):1. doi: 10.3390/pharmacy9010001.
Increasing prescription drug pricing often reflects additional work stress on medical professionals because they function as financial advisors for patients and help them manage out-of-pocket expenses. Providers or prescribers wish to help patients with prescription costs but often lack related information. Healthcare plan providers try to display prescription and drug cost information on their websites, but such data may not be linked to electronic prescription software. A mark-up is defined as the additional charges and costs that are applied to the price of a product for the purpose of covering overhead costs, distribution charges, and profit. Therefore, the policies implemented in the pharmaceutical distribution chain might include the regulation of wholesale and retails mark-ups and pharmaceutical remuneration. If mark-ups are regulated, countries are highly recommended to use regressive mark-ups rather than fixed percentage mark-ups. This narrative review provides insights into the framework of pharmaceutical mark-up systems by describing different factors impacting pharmaceutical prices and affordability. These include the interplay of medicine pricing and the supply chain, the impact of pertinent laws and regulation and out-of-pocket expenditure.
处方药价格不断上涨往往反映出医疗专业人员面临更多工作压力，因为他们充当患者的财务顾问，帮助患者管理自付费用。医疗服务提供者或开处方者希望帮助患者承担处方费用，但往往缺乏相关信息。医疗保健计划提供者试图在其网站上展示处方和药品成本信息，但此类数据可能未与电子处方软件链接。加价是指为覆盖间接成本、分销费用和利润而加到产品价格上的额外费用和成本。因此，药品分销链中实施的政策可能包括对批发和零售加价以及药品薪酬的监管。如果对加价进行监管，强烈建议各国采用递减加价而非固定百分比加价。本叙述性综述通过描述影响药品价格和可承受性的不同因素，深入探讨了药品加价系统的框架。这些因素包括药品定价与供应链的相互作用、相关法律法规的影响以及自付费用。
