Availability of the Drugs for Malignant Diseases Treatment: Comparison between Developing and Developed Countries

Aim: The financial burden of malignant diseases treatment has increased remarkably over the years. This is due to, among many reasons, the costs of drugs, especially those of the new classes. Thus, it is of interest to assess the availability and differential cost of anti-cancer drugs in developing countries compared to developed countries.
Study Design: The study was designed to determine the anti-cancer drugs availability in the world, in the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK) and the Republic of Serbia (RS), with the aim to get insights into the similarities and differences between developed and developing countries toward anti-cancer drugs availability, as well as the prices of these drugs. This analysis was based on three drug data bases for anti-cancer drugs that were available during 2011 and 2012 year in the world, USA, UK, and RS.
Results: About 37% of anti-cancer drugs that were present in the world market in 2011 year were also present in the RS (the drugs that were reimbursed by the state health insurance), compared to 74.8 and 67.4% that were available in the USA and the UK, respectively. Furthermore, out of all drugs registered in 2012 in the UK, 62.8% were present in the RS and almost all pharmacological groups were represented with some drugs, including very expensive ones like the biological agents. Most of the drugs in the RS were cheaper, regardless of whether they belonged to nonproprietary or brand-name drugs. These findings could be the result of the very low national gross domestic product in the RS and thus, the small funds earmarked for the health care.
Conclusion: The Republic of Serbia, which belongs to developing countries, face some difficulties in taking care of patients with malignant diseases where the prominent place have drugs for malignant diseases treatment, especially the newer classes, which are usually more expensive and generally do not provide the first-line treatment.