Pharmaceuticals consumption

Two percentage cost sharing rates, depending on the type of pharmaceuticals involved. Some pharmaceuticals are free, while others are excluded from pubhc coverage Percentage rates of sharing in the cost of pharmaceutical consumption. Positive list of pharmaceuticals with pubhc coverage... 

The present Spanish system of price control is inefficient, as it provides notable negative incentives for pharmaceutical consumption and expenditure it would be desirable to replace it with a more flexible system such as an overall profit control system, or a combination of price-cap regulation and rate of return regulation. 

Furthermore, the price elasticities of demand for pharmaceuticals are likely to differ depending on individuals income. If low-income households have a more price-elastic demand, an increase in co-payment will cause them to make a proportionally larger reduction in their pharmaceutical consumption than high-income households. The same thing could happen if we make the comparison in terms of levels of health. We are faced with equity problems, to which we will return below. 

Bartels-Petersen, J. (1994), Pharmaceutical consumption in a low consuming country the case of Denmark , in E. Mossialos (ed.), Cost Containment, Pricing and Financing of Pharmaceuticals in the European Community the Policymakers View, London London School of Economics and Pharmetrica, pp. 173-81. 

An initial reading of the evolution of pharmaceutical consumption within the Spanish Social Security system enables us to conclude, albeit in isolation and tentatively, that in per capita terms drug consumption has grown more than the nominal GDP, but that it has maintained its position within public health expenditure as a whole. Therefore, in terms of evolution, rising consumption does not represent a differential feature within the general growth in health spending. 

Table 10.8 Pharmaceutical consumption and expenditure in Spanish Social Security prescriptions per insured person per year (1995—2001) in pesetas/year...

Having stated the above, it is absolutely essential to make some comments on the current package of measures regulating the Spanish pharmaceutical market. As we mentioned earlier, the expected effectiveness of tackling the problem of pharmaceutical consumption in a single sphere of intervention (supply, demand or wholesalers) is small. Equally, the study of the impact of any measure of this sort must therefore incorporate an integral approach to the problem (see Table 10.11). 

Manufacture of butylamines (n-butanol and ammonia) accounts for about 2 percent of n-butanol demand. The Cl amines are used primarily as intermediates in the manufacture of herbicides, rubber chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Consumption of n-butanol in butylamines is growing at a rate of about 5 percent per year. 

Caffeine toxicity is an uncommon cause of myopathy, but a history of excessive dietary and pharmaceutical consumption of caffeine should be sought in any patient with unexplained myopathy, particularly if there is concomitant hypokalemia (28). 

The effectiveness of various measures to contain expenditure on medicines in the UK can only be assessed in the context of the situation in other European Union countries. Table 21.1 gives data for the total expenditure on health care as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), expenditure on medicines as a percentage of total healthcare spend, the national pharmaceutical industry s research and development expenditure in euro-millions, the general price index and the medicines price index nationally compared to a European price of 100, and the national pharmaceutical consumption per capita expressed as defined daily doses (DDD). These comparisons are based on OECD Health Data 2000. 

A global analysis shows that world consumption of pharmaceutical products increased dramatically from US 70 billion to US 317 billion in the period between 1975 and 2000 [10]. During this period the world s per capita consumption of medicines increased from US 17 to US 53. Yet more than 80% of all pharmaceutical products are consumed by the 15% of the world population living in industrialized countries, a figure which reflects a grossly uneven distribution of pharmaceutical consumption across the world [3,13,16]. 

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