How dose the availability of generic drug affect the price of essential medicine in Thailand during year 2014-2015.

Abstract

The purpose of this thematic paper thematic paper is to investigate the relationship between the availability of generic drugs and the price of essential medicine in Thailand during year 2014-2015. To that end, the author constructed two separate datasets which draw on year 2014 and 2015 cross sectional data retrieved from the Thai ministry of health and Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) and estimated multiple and log-level regression models designed to test for a statistically significant decrease in the average price of essential medicine for every positive change in the number of generic drugs or substitutions. The two datasets consisted of five variables which include; price of medicine, patent status, brands, number of generic drugs or substitutes and quantity of sales. The findings revealed that the price level of the essential medicines were negatively related to the number of generic drugs or substitutions available. On top of that, it was also shown that patent, brand and quantity of sales all have different but meaningful implications on the average price of essential medicines in Thailand.