Armenia Pharmaceutical Country Profile, 2010

61 Pages·2010·0.26 MB·English

ARMENIA

PHARMACEUTICAL
COUNTRY PROFILE

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Foreword

This 2010 Pharmaceutical Country Profile for Armenia has been produced by
the Ministry of Health with support of the World Health Organization.

This document contains information on structures, process and outcomes of the
pharmaceutical sector in Armenia. Some of the data comes from global sources
(e.g. the World Health Statistics) or from surveys conducted in the previous
years, while other pieces of information have been collected at country level in
2010. The sources of data for each piece of information are presented in the
tables that can be found at the end of this document.

On the behalf of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Armenia, I wish to
express my appreciation towards Dr Lilit Ghazaryan from the Scientific Center
of Drug and Medical Technology Expertise for her contribution to the data
collection and to the development of this profile.

It is my hope that partners, researchers and all those that are interested in the
pharmaceutical sector of Armenia will find this profile a useful tool in their
activities.

Name: Tatul Hakobyan

Function in the Ministry of Health: Deputy Ministry of
Health on International Affairs and Human Resources

Date: 13 August 2010

Signature

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Table of content

Foreword ................................................................................... iii

Table of content .......................................................................... iv

Introduction................................................................................. v

Section 1 - Health and Demographic Data ...........................................1

Section 2 - Health Services..............................................................3

Section 3 - Policy Issues .................................................................7

Section 4 - Regulation...................................................................10

Section 5 - Medicines Financing.......................................................14
Section 6 - Pharmaceutical procurement and distribution in the public
sector.......................................................................................17

Section 7 - Selection and rational use of medicines..............................17

Section 7 - Selection and rational use of medicines..............................18

Section 8 - Household data/access ...................................................20

References.................................................................................21

ANNEX......................................................................................26
Section 1 Health and Demographic data ..............................................28
Section 2 Health Services................................................................31
Section 3 Policy issues...................................................................34
Section 4 Regulation......................................................................37
Section 5 Medicines Financing..........................................................44
Section 6 Pharm.procurement and distribution .......................................48
Section 7 Selection and rational use ...................................................51
Section 8 Household data/access ......................................................55

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Introduction

This Pharmaceutical Country Profile provides data on structures, processes and
outcomes of the pharmaceutical sector of Armenia. The aim is to put together
existing information and to make all relevant information on the
pharmaceuticals sector available to the public in a user-friendly format. In
2010, country profiles similar to this one have been developed for 13 pilot
countries. During 2011, the World Health Organization plans to support all WHO
Member States to develop similar country profiles.

The information is categorized in 8 sections, namely: (1) Health and
Demographic data, (2) Health Services, (3) Policy Issues, (4) Regulation, (5)
Medicines Financing, (6) Supply of Pharmaceuticals, (7) Rational Use of
Medicines, and (8) Household Surveys. The indicators have been divided into
two categories, namely "core" (most important) and "supplementary" (useful if
available). The narrative profile is based only on the core indicators; while the
tables in the annexes present all indicators. For each piece of information, we
have tried to indicate the year and source of the data; these are used to build
the references in the profile and are also indicated in the tables. If key
national documents are available on-line, links are provided to the source
documents so that the user can easily access these documents

The selection of indicators for the profiles has involved all technical units
working in the Essential Medicines Department of the World Health
Organization as well as experts from WHO Regional and Country Offices,
Harvard Medical School, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (known as Fiocruz),
University of Utrecht, the Austrian Federal Institute for Health Care and
representatives from 13 pilot countries. Data collection in the pilot countries
was conducted using a user-friendly electronic questionnaire that included a
comprehensive glossary. Countries were requested not to conduct any
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additional surveys, but only to enter the results from previous surveys and to
provide information available at the central level. To facilitate the work of
national counterparts, the questionnaires were pre-filled using all data
available at WHO HQ before being sent out to countries. A coordinator was
nominated for each of the 13 pilot countries. The coordinator for Armenia was
Dr Lilit Ghazaryan.
The completed questionnaires were then used to produce the country profiles.
In order to do this in a structured and efficient manner, a text template was
developed. Member states took part in the development of the profile and,
once the final product was ready, an officer from the Ministry of Health
certified the quality of the information and gave formal permission to publish
the profile on the web site of WHO.

This profile will be regularly updated by country teams. If you have any
suggestions on corrections to make please send them to Dr Lilit Ghazaryan,
[email protected] , Scientific Center of Drug and Medical Technology Expertise, N
1-15 Moskoyyan Str, Yeravan.
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Section 1 - Health and Demographic Data

This section gives an overview of the demographics and health status of
Armenia.

1.1 Demographics and Socioeconomic Indicators
The total population of Armenia in 2008 was 3,238,000 with an annual
population growth rate of 0.2%. The annual GDP growth rate is 6.8%. The GNI
per capita is US$ 3,350 [1] [2].

1.2 Mortality and Causes of Death
The life expectancy at birth for men is 66 years and for women is 73 years. The
infant mortality rate is 22/1,000 live births. For children under the age of 5,
the mortality rate is 24/1,000 live births. The maternal mortality rate is
76/100,000 live births [3].

The top 10 diseases causing mortality in Armenia are:

1. Diseases of the circulatory system (cardiovascular)
2. Neoplasm’s
3. Diseases of respiratory system
4. Diseases of the digestive system
5. Endocrine system diseases, digestive disturbance, disturbance of metabolism
and immunity
6. Accidents, poisonings, injuries
7. Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not
elsewhere classified
8. Diseases of the genitourinary system
9. Certain infections and parasitic diseases
10. Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period
1
The top 10 diseases causing morbidity in Armenia are:

1. Diseases of respiratory system
2. Diseases of the circulatory system (cardiovascular)
3. Diseases of the digestive system
4. Diseases of the genitourinary system
5. Diseases of the eye and adnexa
6. Endocrine system diseases, digestive disturbance, disturbance of metabolism
and immunity
7. Mental and behavioral disorders
8. Certain infections and parasitic diseases
9. Diseases of nervous system
10. Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes [4].
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Section 2 - Health Services

This section provides information regarding health expenditure and human
resources in Armenia. The contribution of the public and private sector to
overall health expenditure is shown and the specific information on
pharmaceutical expenditure is also presented. Data on human resources for
health and for the pharmaceutical sector is provided as well.

2.1 Health Expenditures
In Armenia, the total annual expenditure on health (THE) in 2008 was AMD
136,919 million (Dram) (US$ 435 million). The total health expenditure is 3.8 %
of the GDP. The total annual expenditure on health per capita was AMD 45,609
(US$ 145).

The government annual expenditure1 on health accounts for 43.7 % of the total
expenditure on health, with a total per capita public expenditure on health of
AMD 19,940 (US$ 64). The government annual expenditure on health represents
7.6% of the total government budget.
The private health expenditure covers the remaining 56.3% of the total health
expenditure.

The whole population (100 %) has access to primary health care centres, but
payments have to be made at the point of delivery.

The total pharmaceutical expenditure (TPE) in Armenia in 2008 was AMD 23,103
million (US$ 75.5 million). The total pharmaceutical expenditure per capita was
AMD 7,030 (US$ 23). The pharmaceutical expenditure accounts for 0.63 % of
the GDP and makes up 16.87 % of the total health expenditure (figure 1).

1 By government expenditure it is meant all expenditure from public sources, like
central government, local government, insurance funds and parastatal companies. This
follows the definition provided by WHO National Health Accounts.
3
Public expenditure on pharmaceuticals represents 17.82 % of the total
expenditure on pharmaceuticals (figure 2). The total public expenditure on
pharmaceuticals per capita was AMD 1,372 (US$ 4.5).

FIGURE 1: Share of Total Pharmaceutical Expenditure as percentage of the Total Health
Expenditure in Armenia in 2008
17%
TPE
Other
83%
Source: NHA, 2008

FIGURE 2: Share of public and private sector to Total Pharmaceutical Expenditure in
Armenia in 2008
18%
Public sector
Private sector
82%
Source: NHA, 2008

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