«Do Medicine Shortages Reduce Access and Increase Pharmaceutical Expenditure? A Retrospective Analysis of Switzerland 2015-2020» | New publication by Stefan Felder and Katharina E. Blankart in Value in Health
Professor Felder and Professor Blankart analyze how shortages led to changes in access to and expenditure for pharmaceutical care in the Swiss health system between 2015 and 2020.
Highlights
- Health systems have experienced a marked increase in the incidence and duration of medicine shortages. Shortages are rooted in demand- and supply-side factors, and governments have started to monitor shortages at national level.
- Drawing from a comprehensive repository of reported shortages in Switzerland between 2015 and 2020, we show that shortages are common and that essential medicines for which reporting is mandatory are not more often affected.
- In 50% of instances, substitutes for medicines under a shortage are cheaper. Nonetheless, shortages increase pharmaceutical expenditure by €6 to 17 million (approximately 0.3% of the total).