The Availability, Pricing, and Affordability of Essential Diabetes Medicines in 17 Low-, Middle-, and High-Income Countries

Background: One third of the world population does not have access to essential medicines. Diabetes require a long-term therapy, which incurs significant health care cost and thus impact access and affordability. This study aims to assess the availability, prices and affordability of four essential medicines used to treat diabetes in private primary care pharmacies in 17 countries. Methods: Data on affordability, availability and prices of four essential diabetes medicines from 51 primary care pharmacies across 17 countries were obtained using a variation of the World Health Organisation/Health Action International (WHO/HAI) methodology. The surveyed countries were Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, China, Jordan, Russia, Armenia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Georgia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal and Tanzania. International reference prices…