Importance This article explores the public drug supply systems in the USA and European countries. Objectives The article aims to confirm the hypothesis that the countries of Europe provide a higher level of availability of medicines and quality of life for the population at relatively lower expenditures on pharmaceuticals compared to the United States. Methods For the research, I used the methods of systems, structural, and comparative analyses. The works of leading experts in the fields of public administration and health, legislative and regulatory documents, statistical data from international databases on the industry for the last five years are the information and theoretical basis of the research. Results Despite the current lag behind the U.S. in the field of innovation and R&D expenditures, European countries manage to effectively perform the task of controlling the quantity and quality of public spending on medicines. The key advantages of the system are the availability of institutions evaluating the drug cost effectiveness, the availability of national formularies, control of pricing at the stage of post-marketing registration, support of the market of authorized generic drugs stimulating drastic and significant innovations in the market. Conclusions The European system of State regulation of pharmaceutical industry provides a high quality of medicines and optimum level of public expenditures. The basic principles of the system can be successfully implemented within the Russian insurance system.
Keywords: pharmaceutical industry, pricing, public health costs, USA, Europe
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