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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.
Measuring Medicine Prices, Availability, Affordability and Price Components (2nd 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
Table of Contents, Abbreviations, Foreword and Acknowledgements
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 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
- Annex 5 Checklist for manual check of survey data
Chapter 8: Data Analysis and Interpretation
Chapter 9: Measuring Price Components
Chapter 10: International Comparisons
Chapter 11: Exploring Possible Policy Options and Lines of Action
Chapter 13: Using the Evidence and Getting the Messages Out
Chapter 14: Monitoring Medicine Prices and Availability