Medicine prices in urban Mozambique: a public health and economic study of pharmaceutical markets and price determinants in low-income settings

Abstract

It has been suggested that medicines are unaffordable in low-income countries and that world manufacturing and trade policies are responsible for high prices. This research investigates medicine prices in urban Mozambique with the objective of understanding how prices are formed and with what public health implications. The study adopts an economic framework and uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse local pharmaceutical prices and markets. The research findings suggest that: (a) local mark-ups are responsible for up to two-thirds of drugs' final prices in private pharmacies; (b) statutory profit and cost ceilings are applied unevenly, due to lack of government..