Production and consumption financial Process of drugs in Iranian healthcare market

Abstract

Considering the important role of statistics and information on major policymaking decisions, this study examined financial trends of production and distribution of drugs in the health system of the Islamic Republic of Iran during the last decade.This was a cross sectional trend study. In order to collect the required data, raw form was designed according to the research objectives and required data were collected between the years of 2000 to 2008. Collected data was entered in the 2007 version of Excel software and descriptive diagrams were used to show the occurred changes process.Findings indicate that growth of the domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing from base year 2000 to year 2008 was ascending. Meanwhile, rate of drug sales in the country's pharmaceutical market over these years was steadily upward and finally, in the years 2000 to 2006, it has been faced with upward growth of domestic production sale.In a general conclusion it seems that despite increasing production rate in the country and upward procedure of consumption and sale of inside-produced medicine in the health care market, problems of paying out of pocket, especially in imported and single prescription drugs remain as before which this will require more extensive and more accurate research.

Keywords: drug production, drug consumption, health system, out of pocket, catastrophic health expenditure