Cost Analysis of Extensively Used Antibiotics

Cost of therapy has been increasing day-by-day. Health expenditures like medicines have to be covered by out-of pocket money, which includes 50-90 percent of the people in developing countries, making medicines unaffordable (WHO, 2004b). About 25-70 percent of the income is spent on health-care expenditure in developing countries, in contrast to 10 percent in developed countries (HAI, 2008). Poor people, who are unaware of hygiene, are mostly prone to infections and they even cannot afford treatment. Antibiotics have made a significant contribution to improve the health of patients suffering from bacterial infections. Medicine prices play a crucial part for the poor in access to antibiotics. Hence, any method which decreases the cost of therapy could be a boon for the poor. There are different brands of a single drug available in the market with different prices. But these drugs that are marketed under different brand names are similar in nature (i.e., they are similar in API, dose and form). So, the present study was based on the comparison of prices of different brands of extensively used antibiotics in the health care systems which are employed for treating bacterial infections and thereby decreasing the mortality and the morbidity of the patients. Results have shown that in the current scenario, upto 99.11% cost could be saved by substituting the highest priced brand with the lowest priced brand in a prescription. Hence, it is possible for a physician to decrease the cost of therapy, while treating infections especially of poor patients by comparing the prices of different brands of drugs & prescribing the low priced brands.