Lack of drug accessibility and high prices is a problem in many countries. To improve the economic affordability of drugs it is necessary to possess with full, clear and timely information about their prices, i.e. to carry out their monitoring.
The aim of the research — the rationalization of health care resources utilization, transparency of medicines prices, costs optimization and increasing economic accessibility of drugs for the ischemic stroke patients.
Materials and methods. Information retrieval, price monitoring, analysis and generalization of methods.
Objects of the research — information about wholesale prices from the State Register of wholesale prices for drugs and medical products (Ukraine), International Drug Price Indicator GUID for major drugs of “Management Sciences for Health” and the electronic resource Common European Drug Database (CEDD). 138 brand names of drugs for ischemic stroke treatment were selected for the study.
Results. During the study period prices for the majority of analyzed drugs have not changed, and the average wage rose on 7% since the economic accessibility of these drugs slightly increased (accessibility index above 1.0). Calculation of Global Maximum Price Ratio, Global Median Price Ratio and Global Minimum Price Ratio showed that in all analyzed cases, their values were larger than 1.0, i.e. the prices of the investigated drugs in Ukraine are higher than recommended international prices. Determination of European unit price dose showed that in Ukraine medicine prices are higher comparing with Austria 11–23 times, Slovenia — 8–18 times, and Hungary — 3–7 times, so less affordable.
Conclusions. Medicines for ischemic stroke patients are less economic accessible in Ukraine than in the world. In this, constant monitoring of medicines prices would increase the opportunity of economic drugs accessibility to the population, improve procurement of medicines policy and the utilization of budget funds and enhance the effectiveness of government policy of medication affordability.