Ann Pharmacol Pharm | Volume 5, Issue 2 | Research Article | Open Access
Alexandrou Panayiotopoulou E1*, George Charalambous2, Daphni Kaitelidou3 and Eleni Jelastopulu4
1Frederick University, Pharmaceutical Services, Ministry of Health, Cyprus
2General Hospital of Athens "Hippocrates", Greece
3Department of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
4Department of Public Health, University of Patras, Greece
*Correspondance to: Alexandrou Panayiotopoulou E
Fulltext PDFObjective: National pricing and reimbursement policies should provide an efficient pricing and reimbursement pharmaceutical systems. The health system in Cyprus, before June 2019, consisted of a public and private sector. Cyprus has just introduced a National Health System. The establishment of the new health system should require the appropriate reimbursement policies since lower prices can be achieved through robust reimbursement systems. Cyprus has had considerable success implementing tendering procedure for over three decades. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of the tendering procedure with the comparison of the tender price and the official wholesale price of pharmaceutical products from 267 therapeutic subgroups at ATC 4 level, from the private and public sectors. Methods: Pharmaceutical products were identified and categorized based on strength, pharmaceutical form, therapeutic subgroup and chemical substance as procured by the public sector during 2017. Subsequently, comparison of the total expenditures was carried out between the lowest wholesale price and the tender price of the identified pharmaceutical products from the private and public sectors respectively. Included in the analysis were 2237 pharmaceutical products from the private sector and 709 from the public sector covering 267 therapeutic subgroups. Findings: The tender prices which were secured by the Ministry of Health were lower than the lowest wholesale prices for the same products in the price list of 2017. Conclusion: Tenders could be seen as an additional tool for the new reimbursement system to select cost-effective choices. For Cyprus authorities, tendering could be an option in setting a reimbursement policy.
Tendering; Pharmaceuticals; Reimbursement; Wholesale price; Cyprus
Alexandrou Panayiotopoulou E, Charalambous G, Kaitelidou D, Jelastopulu E. Assessment of Effectiveness of Tendering Procedure in Pharmaceuticals: The Cyprus Experience. Ann Pharmacol Pharm. 2020;5(2):1179.