A pharmacoeconomic study on cost variation of antiplatelet drugs available in Indian market

Abstract

Background: Expenditure spent on pharmaceutical products accounts for a significant percent of the total health-care expenses of any country. Hence, there is a need to prioritize different and sometimes competing health-care interventions or possibly different brands of a particular medicine, especially in case of chronic illnesses for countries with fixed resources. Pharmacoeconomics helps us to make such decisions. Since antiplatelet drugs are prescribed on long-term basis, they were included in this study. Aim and Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the cost variation of the antiplatelet drugs available in the market under various brand names manufactured by different pharmaceutical industries. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to analyze the cost variation of different antiplatelet drugs available in Indian market. Cost of each drug with respect to dosage and formulation was obtained from the “current index of medical specialties” website for India. Cost ratio and percentage cost variation were then calculated. Results: Among the injectable and oral and drugs included in this study, the percentage cost variation was observed to be maximum with eptifibatide 75 mg vial, prasugrel 5 mg film-coated tablets, and aspirin-clopidogrel (75 + 75 mg) capsules. Conclusion: Even though the cost variation is found to be wide among the antiplatelet drugs available in Indian market, getting a cost-effective drug is not building castles in the air for the beneficiaries. This could be rendered possible with the help of policy-makers, pharmaceutical companies, physicians, and pharmacists when they join hands together.