Pharmaceutical pricing : assessing the impact of factors influencing HIV/AIDS and AIDS related medicine prices in Zimbabwe

Abstract

HIV IAIDS death and mortality rates have proven to be one of the largest threats to the economies of many developing countries, in particular Zimbabwe. Twenty five percent of the adult population in Zimbabwe is HIV positive and it is estimated that at least 2000 people die every week of the disease. Consequently, there is an urgent need to find means and ways of reducing the number of premature deaths due to AIDS. Access to affordable drugs will have great impact on reducing these premature deaths in the country. However high AIDS and opportunistic infections drug prices have rendered these medicines unaffordable and inaccessible to the vast majority of the population infected with the virus. Moreover the majority of the population has to meet most of its drug cost through out of pocket payments.