Deregulation and access to medicines: the Peruvian experience

Costa-Font, Joan (2016) Deregulation and access to medicines: the Peruvian experience. Journal of International Development, 28 (6). pp. 997-1005. ISSN 0954-1748

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Abstract

How does the deregulation of medicine influence access to drugs? This paper provides an economic policy assessment of the effects of medicine deregulation drawing on the Peruvian experience between 1991 and 2006. As in other low-income countries, health insurance development is inadequate, drug expenditure is mostly paid out-of-pocket and approximately one third of the Peruvian population has limited access to ‘essential medicines’. Market deregulation in this context can exert an impact on prices and hence reduce access to medicines. Based on this evidence, we find that product and price deregulation of the medicines market appears to have reduced consumer trust of locally produced medicines, which in turn incentivised a switch to branded and more expensive drugs. The latter resulted in a further decreased access to medicines.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(IS...
Additional Information:	© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Library of Congress subject classification:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine R Medicine > RS Pharmacy and materia medica
Sets:	Departments > European Institute Departments > Social Policy Research centres and groups > Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) Research centres and groups > LSE Health and Social Care
Date Deposited:	11 Mar 2015 16:21
URL:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/61172/

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