Medicine Prices in Latin American Countries

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of medicines prices in Latin American (LA) countries. After a brief contextual introduction, the first section describes existing knowledge on the regulation of medicines prices in LA, with a special focus on Brazil and Colombia. The next section reports the main existing sources and databases of medicines prices in the region. The third section reports the methodology and results of a literature search of medicine price studies that include LA countries. Six articles were identified. Additionally, 18 different online sources, apps, or databases to consult medicines prices from nine LA countries are described. Available studies on medicine prices in LA are scarce and carried out in different years. Moreover, the methodologies are often heterogeneous and, hence, the results are not comparable. Most of the studies found in the literature used the standardized methodology developed by the World Health Organization and Health Action International to survey the price, availability, and affordability of medicines; in fact, the results focus more often on availability than on affordability, i.e., on the price–income relationship. The scarcity of medicine price information and studies in LA countries might be related to the limited and only recent use of price regulation in the region.