Drug Control and Formulary Management in Malaysia

Hussain, Samsinah

doi:10.1111/j.1524-4733.2008.00381.x

Cited by 12 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…This elucidated that an increase in number of dependents was associated with reduced WTP. The concept of opportunity cost is seen here [1, 4]; if patients are required to pay more for expensive chronic disease drugs, this would affect their other daily expenses and basic needs [23]. Hence, this substantiates our hypothesis that patients with a high number of dependents have low WTP for drugs as compared with those with low number of dependents.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

“…In addition, it is obligatory for them to go to the clinic more often for follow up and continuation of treatment [1, 2]. If drugs charges are to be implemented abruptly in health clinics without proper targeting for fee subsidisation, this situation may decrease visits to hospitals or clinics in the future [4, 5, 7, 10]. However, our statistical test proved that health status has no significant association with patients’ WTP for drugs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Numerous factors [2, 3] are found to contribute to an increase drug prices including growth of aging population, higher consumer expectations, long-term drug treatment for chronic conditions, polypharmacy, improvements in diagnostics/treatment of diseases, and novel expensive drugs offered due to advancement of health technology [4]. As a result, the government has an increasing demand on the rising health care costs [1, 3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Patients’ willingness to pay for their drugs in primary care clinics in an urbanized setting in Malaysia: a guide on drug charges implementation

et al. 2017

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BackgroundMalaysia is an upper middle income country that provides subsidized healthcare to ensure universal coverage to its citizens. The challenge of escalating health care cost occurs in most countries, including Malaysia due to increase in disease prevalence, which induced an escalation in drug expenditure. In 2009, the Ministry of Health has allocated up to Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) 1.402 billion (approximately USD 390 million) on subsidised drugs. This study was conducted to measure patients’ willingness to pay (WTP) for treatment of chronic condition or acute illnesses, in an urbanized population.MethodsA cross-sectional study, through face-to-face interview was conducted in an urban state in 2012–2013. Systematic random sampling of 324 patients was selected from a list of patients attending ten public primary cares with Family Medicine Specialist service. Patients were asked using a bidding technique of maximum amount (in MYR) if they are WTP for chronic or acute illnesses.ResultsPatients are mostly young, female, of lower education and lower income. A total of 234 respondents (72.2%) were not willing to pay for drug charges. WTP for drugs either for chronic or acute illness were at low at median of MYR10 per visit (USD 3.8). Bivariate analysis showed that lower numbers of dependent children (≤3), higher personal and household income are associated with WTP. Multivariate analysis showed only number of dependent children (≤3) as significant (p = 0.009; 95% CI 1.27–5.44) predictor to drugs’ WTP.ConclusionThe result indicates that primary care patients have low WTP for drugs, either for chronic condition or acute illness. Citizens are comfortable in the comfort zone whereby health services are highly subsidized through universal coverage. Hence, there is a resistance to pay for drugs.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Patients’ willingness to pay for their drugs in primary care clinics in an urbanized setting in Malaysia: a guide on drug charges implementation

et al. 2017

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“…The increase in drug expenditure has been due to various factors that derive from the demand and supply side as well as the surrounding environment moderating the industry's performance [2,5,8].…”

Section: Pharmaceuticals Cost Contaimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These requirements are justified in order to protect the well being of the patient as the user of the drugs. This method has been argued to be among the most effective mechanism to contain the cost of pharmaceuticals, as it enables the government through a regulatory body to control the drugs prices nationwide [8].…”

Section: A National Formularymentioning

confidence: 99%

Different mechanisms to contain the cost of pharmaceuticals in Malaysia

Dzulkipli

2012

2012 International Conference on Innovation Management and Technology Research

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The rise of pharmaceuticals cost in Malaysia had put pressure on the Ministry of Health in managing scarce resources in the healthcare sector. Currently, drugs that are listed in the National Drug List are supplied free of charge through government hospitals and clinics. The main objectives of this paper were to review mechanisms that could be used to contain government expenditure on pharmaceuticals and to make recommendations as to which of these mechanisms should be adopted in Malaysia. In addition, an overview of the healthcare sector in Malaysia was presented, and current trends in pharmaceutical spending in Malaysia were compared with those of developing countries, namely Thailand and South Korea. Four mechanisms for containing the cost of pharmaceuticals were reviewed -the use of a national formulary, reference pricing, imposing restrictions on physicians, and cost sharing. After discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each of these mechanisms, the following were put forward as recommendations to contain the costs of pharmaceuticals in Malaysia: (i) to increase the role of cost sharing in the funding of pharmaceuticals in the public sector with exemption fees or other mechanisms used to safeguard low income groups from the increase in prices (ii) to introduce a requirement for the economic evaluation of new drugs seeking listing on the national formulary and only list those drugs that are shown to be cost-effective and (iii) to break the wholesaler monopoly of the drug supply and introduce a tender process whereby pharmaceutical companies compete to supply drugs to the public healthcare system.Keywords national formulary, reference pricing, imposing restrictions on physicians, and cost sharing I.

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