Zaporožskij Medicinskij Žurnal (Feb 2025)
Justification of a price range for topical antifungal drugs based on patient preferences
Abstract
The price factor is an important element when using a therapy management, that is complicated by the deterioration in the socio-economic situation of Ukrainians and the National Health Care system in the middle of war. The aim is to examine patients’ willingness-to-pay for topical antifungal drugs (TAFDs) taking into account their differing consumer characteristics in order to justify the economic component in the development and pharmaceutical market introduction of national drugs and to formulate recommendations for improving the level of pharmaceutical care for patients with fungal skin diseases. Materials and methods. The results of a sociological TAFDs’ consumer survey were used as the basic study material. In this study, the methods of information retrieval, summarizing, formalizing, questioning, van Westendorp’s Price Sensitivity Meter (PSM) were used. The respondent geography covered the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Odesa regions. Results. A total group analysis of price sensitivity was conducted including 8 TAFDs with calculation of optimal (OPP), indifferent (IDP), minimum (MCP) and maximum (MEP) respondents’ willingness-to-pay prices. The same prices were subsequently calculated in the intra-group price analysis of respondents with different income levels and experience in drug therapy for fungal skin diseases. The cumulative distribution of respondents was graphed at three stages of the study calculations for the identified subgroups (64 graphs in total). Conclusions. The van Westendorp’s Price Sensitivity Meter (PSM) has been used to examine patients’ willingness-to-pay for topical antifungal drugs considering their different consumer characteristics: final dosage form – gel, ointment, cream, solution, spray; combined / monocomponent. At the same time, opinion of patients with different levels of income and experience of drug therapy for fungal skin diseases has been sought. Based on the studies, the economic component and the promising form of a new antifungal drug for topical use (pharmacy or industrial production) – a spray or gel with a price in the range of UAH 181–230 have been justified.
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