Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
School of Public Health, University of Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa.
Int J Health Plann Manage. 2023 Sep;38(5):1453-1463. doi: 10.1002/hpm.3670. Epub 2023 Jun 19.
Recent growth in the market share of higher priced branded generic medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has raised concerns around affordability and access. We examined consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for branded versus unbranded generic non-communicable disease (NCD) medicines in Kenya.
We randomly assigned NCD patients to receive a hypothetical offer for either a Novartis Access-branded medicine or for an unbranded generic equivalent. We then analysed WTP data captured using a bidding game methodology.
We found that WTP for Novartis Access medicines was on average 23% higher than for unbranded generic equivalents (p = 0.009). The WTP brand premium was driven almost entirely by wealthier patients.
Our findings suggest that the dominance of branded generics in LMICs like Kenya reflect in part consumer preferences for these medicines. Governments and other health sector actors may be justified in intervening to improve access to these medicines and equivalent non-branded generics, particularly for the poorest patients who appear to have no preference for branded medicines.
在中低收入国家（LMICs），高价品牌仿制药市场份额的最近增长引起了人们对可负担性和可及性的关注。我们研究了肯尼亚消费者对品牌仿制药与非品牌仿制药的支付意愿（WTP）。
我们随机分配 NCD 患者接受诺华 Access 品牌药品或非品牌仿制药的假设报价。然后，我们使用投标博弈方法分析了 WTP 数据。
我们发现，对 Novartis Access 药物的 WTP 平均比非品牌仿制药高出 23%（p=0.009）。品牌溢价的主要驱动因素是较富裕的患者。
我们的研究结果表明，像肯尼亚这样的中低收入国家品牌仿制药的主导地位部分反映了消费者对这些药品的偏好。政府和其他卫生部门的参与者可能有理由进行干预，以改善这些药品和等效非品牌仿制药的可及性，特别是对那些看起来对品牌药品没有偏好的最贫困患者。
