Approvals and Prices of Systemic Antibiotics in Saudi Arabia and the United States

Author

Saad Alharthi, Chapman UniversityFollow

Date of Award

Spring 8-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Pharmaceutical Sciences

First Advisor

Enrique Seoane-Vazquez

Second Advisor

Rosa Rodríguez Monguio

Third Advisor

Marc L. Fleming

Fourth Advisor

Richard C. Beuttler

Abstract

Introduction

Antibiotics is one of the therapeutic classes with the highest level of consumption in the world. Despite the global diffusion of antibiotics, their availability and prices vary by country. This study assessed differences in the availability and prices of systemic antibiotics marketed in the United States (US) and Saudi Arabia and evaluated the factors associated with the differences in prices of systemic antibiotics marketed in both countries.

Material and Methods

We collected regulatory data from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA), the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) and the average sales price (ASP) data from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and Saudi prices from the SFDA website. We concerted Saudi rials to dollars and current dollars to purchasing power parity dollars (PPS$). We conducted descriptive statistics and linear mixed-effects regression analysis using Rstudio.

Results

As of January 2022, 125 active systemic antibiotics were marketed in the United States and 68 in Saudi Arabia. The median $PPP Saudi/US price was higher for oral capsules and tablets (56.4%, n=71) than for oral suspension and syrup forms (33.2%, n=24). However, the median $PPP Saudi/US price of injectable forms was similar in Saudi Arabia and the US (94.9%, n=28).

Strength (χ² =29.19, p2=36.76,p2=36.58,p

Conclusions

Half of the systemic antibiotics marketed in the US were also available in Saudi Arabia. The PPP prices of antibiotics were lower in Saudi Arabia than in the US, except for injectable drugs. PPP price differences between Saudi Arabia and the US varied according to the drug form and strength and the country of incorporation of the marketing company.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Alharthi, S. Approvals and Prices of Systemic Antibiotics in Saudi Arabia and the United States. [master’s thesis]. Irvine, CA: Chapman University; 2022. https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000392