Evaluation of metformin and gliclazide availability in the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine

Abstract

Relevance. Comparison of the consumption of various oral hypoglycemic agents allows evaluating the approaches to the treatment of type 2 diabetes patients.  Significantly higher metformin consumption and lower sulfonylurea consumption in Western European countries by contrast to Ukraine indicates that in Ukraine, type  2 diabetes is diagnosed mostly in its moderate and severe forms, and the pre-diabetic conditions treated mainly with metformin monotherapy are diagnosed insufficiently. In the light of the low metformin consumption in relation to other countries with smaller population, it is of interest to calculate metformin and gliclazide  availability for consumers. Research methods. Determination of the nomenclature of metformin and gliclazide trade names presented in the Ukrainian  pharmaceutical market is performed according to the information retrieval system MORION (the period from 2012 to 2014). Economic availability is assessed in terms  of solvency adequacy rate and availability index. The solvency adequacy rate (Ca.s) determines the share (%) of the average wage required for the purchase of certain  medicines in the amount of treatment course. Availability index (D) describes the correlation between the growth rate of the minimum wage and the growth rate of  the subsistence minimum factored in the drug composite price index. The D index (D≥1) indicates the availability of the drugs for the population. Results. In 2014, in  the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine, metformin and gliclazide drugs were presented in the range of 49 and 13 trade names respectively. In terms of the solvency  adequacy rate (Ca.s.), the evaluated metformin drugs are classified as highly available (Ca.s.≤5%) (Ca.s. from 1.38% to 4.75%). One of the most available medicines is  domestic product Diaformin® (Farmak) (Ca.s. from 1.57% to 2.36%). The domestic generic drug Diaglizide® MR 60 mg № 30, Farmak (Ukraine) also has good  availability (Ca.s. 1.6%) in respect of the average monthly wage. The availability index data of the most metformin and gliclazide drugs indicates that the price growth  significantly exceeded the wage growth in 2014. Conclusions. Despite the extensive range of the trade names for metformin and gliclazide drugs, economic instability of the Ukrainian economy generates a steady tendency to reduce the availability of medicines for consumers.