Governments need reliable information on the price, availability and affordability of medicines to develop sound medicine pricing policies and to evaluate the impact of policy implementation. To help researchers collect this information in their countries, Health Action International offers a free standardised methodology.

The methodology pulls together and analyses data on medicine prices for both patient out-of-pocket expenses and government procurement prices across sectors and country regions. It also assesses medicine availability, affordability and price components, such as taxes and mark-ups.

NB: In late 2024, minor revisions were made to the 2^nd edition of the WHO/HAI manual and workbook (Part I). This was necessary as in 2015 Management Sciences for Health (MSH) stopped updating their International Medical Products Price Guide. Therefore, MSH prices could no longer be used as international reference prices in the WHO/HAI methodology.  Other options are now discussed in the manual. Additionally,  references to outdated lists and supplementary materials have been removed. If you have any questions, please contact HAI at info@haiweb.org

Measuring Medicine Prices, Availability, Affordability and Price Components (2^nd Edition)

by Health Action International and World Health Organization (2008)

The WHO/HAI medicine price, availability and affordability survey methodology can be downloaded (per section) for free below.

Electronic Workbooks

Part 1: Prices, availability and affordability – Download Workbook (in Excel)

Part 2: Price components – Download Workbook (in Excel)

Download Manual by Sections

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Survey Overview and Pre-survey Planning
Supporting materials:

• Annex 1 Questionnaire on structures and processes of country pharmaceutical situation
• Annex 2 Example of a letter of endorsement

Chapter 3: Preparation

Chapter 4: Training Area Supervisors, Data Collectors and Data Entry   

• Annex 3 Trainers’ guide for training area supervisors, data collectors and data entry personnel

Handouts

• Instructions for area supervisors (EN | FR | ES | RU)
• Instructions for data collectors (EN | FR | ES | RU)
• Instructions for completing the Medicine Price Data Collection Form (EN | FR | ES | RU)

Chapter 5: Preparing for Data Collection in the Field

• Annex 4 Letter of introduction from survey manager

Chapter 6: Data Collection in the Field

Chapter 7: Data Entry

• Annex 5 Checklist for manual check of survey data

Chapter 8: Data Analysis and Interpretation

Chapter 9: Measuring Price Components

• Annex 6 Price components interview guide
• Annex 7 Price components data collection form

Chapter 10: International Comparisons

• Annex 8 International comparison of MPRs

Chapter 11: Exploring Possible Policy Options and Lines of Action

Chapter 12: Reporting

Chapter 13: Using the Evidence and Getting the Messages Out

Chapter 14: Monitoring Medicine Prices and Availability

Glossary

For archive reasons, a copy of the original 2nd edition is available here.