Table 4.
Affordability and median price-ratio comparisons for selected medicines, innovator brand, and their equivalent generic, by income level.
| Medicines | Lower income | Lower-middle income | Upper-middle income | High income | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affordability | Price-ratio | Affordability | Price-ratio | Affordability | Price-ratio | Affordability | Price-ratio | ||
| Metformin 500 mg | IB | 2.63 | 3.15 | 0.32 | 1.82 | 0.52 | 6.60 | 0.29 | 3.50 |
| LPG | 0.88 | 1.17 | 0.27 | 1.89 | 0.28 | 3.52 | 0.11 | 1.65 | |
| Metformin 850 mg XR | IB | 0.06 | 0.38 | 0.33 | 2.19 | 0.25 | 3.23 | 0.11 | 7.26 |
| LPG | 0.52 | 1.18 | 0.26 | 2.12 | 0.13 | 2.06 | 0.10 | 0.70 | |
| Gliclazide 80 mg | IB | – | – | 0.44 | 0.64 | 0.04 | 2.82 | 0.02 | 3.85 |
| LPG | 0.01 | 0.10 | 0.23 | 0.80 | 0.04 | 2.98 | 0.03 | 2.75 | |
| Insulin 100 IU/ml | IB | 2.37 | 0.58 | 0.12 | 2.16 | 0.29 | 0.75 | 0.46 | 0.92 |
| LPG | – | – | – | 0.12 | 2.36 | 0.07 | 1.21 | 0.02 | 0.20 |
For median price-ratio, a value ≥3 in the private sector means the local’s pay more for the medicine than recommended by WHO [22, 29]. The WHO recommend that for a treatment to be affordable it should not exceed 1 day’s wages using the wage of the lowest-paid unskilled government worker. Bolded figures show price-ratio more than WHO recommended value of ≥3 in the private sector OR when figure exceeded 1 day’s wages. Bolded figures represents statistical significance = p < 0.05.