In order to recommend policies and practices that will improve access to medicines and tackle existing obstacles, the multi-stakeholder alliance must ‘generate an evidence base’. It should make informed decisions based on reliable and up to date information about the price, quality, availability and promotion of medicines and the relevant existing health care policies and practices.

The application of the tools in this section will provide a baseline of core information which can be used to inform policy decisions and track progress.  New and reliable data is collected which present a clear picture of the policies and practices that affect access to essential medicines – and start to give an indication of the changes needed.

This includes information on:

• the availability, affordability and rational use of medicines at public health facilities and their pharmacies, central/district warehouses, private, NGO and mission pharmacies and households
• the price people pay for key medicines
• whether the prices and availability of the same medicines vary in different sectors or in different parts of a country
• what differences are in prices and availability of originator brands and generically equivalent medicines
• whether prices vary between product types (e.g. originator brands and generics) within the same sector
• how the government procurement prices compare with patient prices in the public sector
• how national prices compare with international reference prices
• what taxes and duties are levied on medicines and the level of various mark-ups that contribute to their retail and public sector prices
• how affordable medicines are for ordinary people      
• whether pharmaceutical policies are achieving their intended objectives

Core Tools:

• Household & Facility Surveys on Access to and Rational Use of Medicines in Countries
• Measuring Medicine Prices, Availability, Affordability and Price Components
• Medicines Promotion: Assessing the Nature, Extent and Impact of Regulation
• Understanding and Responding to Pharmaceutical Promotion: A Practical Guide

Additional Tools:

• Drug and Therapeutics Committees (DTC) - A Practical Guide
• How to Investigate Drug Use in Health Facilities
• How to Investigate the Use of Medicines by Consumers
• Measuring Transparency in the Public Pharmaceutical Sector
• Medicine Price and Availability Monitoring
• Medicine Price Components
• Procurement and Supply Management (PSM) Toolbox
• Supply Chain Mapping
• WHO Data Collection Tool - for the review of drug regulatory systems