The assessment of economic affordability of antiviral herbal medicines presented at the domestic pharmaceutical market

Abstract

One of the most urgent problems of our time is the high morbidity and mortality of people from viral infections, which can affect almost all organs and systems of the host body. Significant damage to the health of the population and the economy of countries is caused by the incidence of viral diseases. An important issue in the process of pharmacotherapy of patients with viral infections is to provide them with a sufficient number of effective, safe and affordable drugs, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, which humanity actively fought during 2019-2020 and is still fighting today.

Aim. To conduct the marketing analysis of the range of antiviral herbal medicines presented at the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine during 2019-2020 and their marketing characteristics.

Materials and methods. The study used a list of antiviral herbal medicines according to the State Register of Medicines of Ukraine, the Compendium, and scientific articles of professional publications. The main research methods were systematic, comparative, marketing analysis of the drug market structure, monitoring and graphical method.

Results and discussion. According to the PBX international classification system, antiviral medicines based on the plant raw material belong to the group of drugs applied as antimicrobial agents for systemic use. According to the PBX classification, medicines that mainly belong to the J05AX ** group – “Antiviral drugs for systemic use. Antiviral drugs.
Others.” were of interest. It was found that as of 01.01.2019, the Ukrainian market of the group studied was formed by domestic manufacturers, there were 4 names of medicines and 4 manufacturing companies. Drugs were presented at the pharmaceutical market in the form of drops, syrups, suppositories and tablets. It was determined that the most available drugs within 2019-2020 were Altabor, Erebra and Flavovir although during the study period there was a steady increase in prices for drugs of this group at the pharmaceutical market. Therefore, it should be noted that from year to year their affordability for consumers decreases.

Conclusions. The marketing research has been performed, and the assortment structure of antiviral herbal medicines presented at the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine has been analyzed. The indicators characterizing the market situation, such as offers, product range, price dynamics and the coefficients of availability, adequacy of solvency, etc., have been studied.