Background: The availability and affordability of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are critical to the success of public health initiatives enabling care for people with epilepsy in the community. Objective: To pilot survey the availability and affordability of AEDs in the community. Methods: Field workers used standard WHO–Health Action International approaches and collected data on the availability of, and maximum retail prices of originator brands and least price generics of AEDs in 46 randomly selected public (n = 29), private (n = 8), and charitable (n = 9) pharmacy outlets. Median price ratios were computed apropos international reference prices of corresponding medications and affordability gauged with reference to daily wage of lowest paid worker. Results: Only 10 outlets (7 – private, 3 – public, and none – charitable) stocked at least one essential AED. Median price ratios varied between 1.1 and 1.5 essentially reflecting the difference between the least price generics and originator brands. Of note, carbamazepine-retard, 200 mg put up the slightest difference in prices of originator and least price generic brands and also was the most affordable AED. Conclusions: The availability and affordability of most AEDs were poor and hence, this needs to be studied on a wider scale and thereafter efforts to improve both the availability and affordability are desirable in order to address the huge treatment gap for epilepsy in India.


中文翻译：

---

资源有限环境中的抗癫痫药物价格、可用性和可负担性


背景：抗癫痫药物 (AED) 的可得性和可负担性对于支持社区癫痫患者护理的公共卫生计划的成功至关重要。目的：对社区 AED 的可用性和可负担性进行试点调查。方法：现场工作人员使用标准的 WHO-Health Action International 方法，并在 46 个随机选择的公共 ( n = 29)、私人 ( n = 8) , 和慈善 ( n= 9) 药店。中位价格比率是根据相应药物的国际参考价格和参考最低工资工人的日工资衡量的负担能力计算得出的。结果：只有 10 家网点（7 家 - 私人，3 家 - 公共，没有一家 - 慈善机构）至少备有一种基本 AED。中位数价格比率在 1.1 和 1.5 之间变化，基本上反映了最低价格仿制药和原研品牌之间的差异。值得注意的是，延迟卡马西平 200 毫克在原研药和最低价格仿制药的价格差异最小，也是最实惠的 AED。结论：大多数 AED 的可用性和可负担性都很差，因此，这需要在更广泛的范围内进行研究，然后努力提高可用性和可负担性，以解决印度癫痫治疗的巨大差距。