Projects per year
Abstract
Background High-priced drugs pose a challenge for health budgets, policies, and patient safety. One of the key roles of community pharmacies is to ensure availability to prescription drugs regardless of their price. This has been identified as challenging in certain situations concerning high-priced drugs. Objectives The aim is to investigate the views of proprietary pharmacists regarding the effects of high-priced drugs on the day-to-day operations of pharmacies. Methods The data collection of the study was performed as a national cross-sectional online survey. The inclusion criteria were being a proprietary pharmacist and a member of the Association of Finnish Pharmacies. The survey contained questions yielding both quantitative and qualitative answers. The study focused on the qualitative data which was analysed by deductive thematic analysis. Results In total 604 proprietary pharmacists were sent the survey, and 174 eligible answers were included in the study, giving a response rate of 29%. The result describes the relationships between the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development based on a framework by Wanamaker, with respect to high-priced drugs and community pharmacy operations as viewed by proprietary pharmacists. The main findings of the study show that proprietary pharmacists find the implementation of real-time reimbursement payments, a further reform of the pharmacy tax, and the abolishment of return bans to the wholesaler as risk mitigations and means to attain sustainability with respect to high-priced drugs and pharmacy practice. They experience that these changes would diminish high-priced drugs unnecessarily ending up as medical waste and improve the working conditions of the pharmacy staff by alleviating stress. Conclusions According to the respondents, high-priced drugs pose challenges for community pharmacies and the legislation and reimbursement system need to adapt to these challenges. If not, community pharmacies in Finland continue to face severe financial declines based on the study results.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 106816 |
| Journal | European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences |
| Volume | 199 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2024 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- Sustainability
- Community pharmacy
- High-priced drugs
- Irrational use
- Pharmacy practice
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Nordic Pharmaceutical Translation and Innovation
Rosenholm, J. (Principal Investigator), Viitala, T. (Co-Principal Investigator), Zhang, H. (Co-Principal Investigator), Salo-Ahen, O. (Co-Principal Investigator), Filppula, A. (Co-Principal Investigator), Wang, X. (Co-Principal Investigator), Bansal, K. (Co-Investigator), Kulkov, I. (Co-Investigator), Ameyaw Ahen, F. (Co-Investigator), Salminen, T. A. (Co-Principal Investigator), Airenne, T. (Co-Investigator), Lehtonen, J. (Co-Investigator), Södergård, B. (Co-Investigator) & Rosenberg, S. (Co-Investigator)
01/01/24 → 31/12/28
Project: Research
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PharmAInteraction
Andtfolk, M. (Coordinator), Hägglund, S. (Co-Investigator), Andersson, S. (Co-Investigator), Rosenberg, S. (Co-Investigator), Wingren, M. (Co-Investigator), Lundell, A. (Co-Investigator) & Nyholm, L. (Co-Investigator)
01/09/23 → 31/08/24
Project: Research Council of Finland/Other Research Councils