A Price Comparison of Antibiotics in a Tertiary Healthcare Facility in Southern Nigeria

Abstract

A large proportion of the population in developing countries including Nigeria lacks regular access to medicines for disease treatment. This has been linked to the high cost of these drugs, antibiotics inclusive. We undertook to compare the prices of antibiotics prescribed in the pediatric ward of a tertiary health-care facility in Southern Nigeria. The prices of 15 different antibiotics were obtained from the hospital formulary and were compared with the international prices as obtained from an international drug formulary. These were converted to the same currency and the Median Price Ratio (MPR) was calculated for each antibiotic drug. The MPR ranged from 0.38 to 13.92, the lowest being for clindamycin and the highest for ciprofloxacin. The patients paid more than the international prices for 80% of the antibiotics. The price of ciprofloxacin was up to 14 times the international price. We concluded that the price of antibiotics was obviously high in the healthcare facility when compared to the international prices. The development of drug policies and generic prescribing were recommended for the reduction of prices of antibiotics and drugs in general. This would help to increase accessibility to medical treatment and improve the public health of the nation.

KEYWORDS: Price, antibiotics, Median Price Ratio, Nigeria.