Prices of essential drugs for management and treatment of COVID-19 in public and private Peruvian pharmacies

Objective: to compare the sale price of essential drugs used in the management and therapy of COVID-19 in public and private pharmacies in Peru Also, to assess the cost per person of drug therapy for both mild and severe cases Materials and methods: this is a cross-sectional study using data reported by public and private pharmacies in Peru Drug prices are presented as median values and they were compared using the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test Also, costs per person and drug accessibility for treating mild and moderate cases were estimated Results: drugs used when treating mild cases of COVID-19, such as azythromycin, hydroxichloroquine, ivermectin, and paracetamol had median prices between S/0 04 (US$ 0 011) and S/23 81 (US$ 6 71) in public pharmacies, while the same compounds cost between S/1 00 (US$ 0 28) and S/36 00 (US$ 10 15) in private pharmacies On average, drug prices in private pharmacies are 11 times higher compared to those in public pharmacies Costs for (COVID-19) therapy in public pharmacies are more accessible compared to those found in private pharmacies, particularly for drugs used for more severely affected patients Therapy regimens for mild cases require spending 1 to 4 days of the minimum daily wages, while therapy for severe cases (of COVID-19) may require up to 64 days of the minimum daily wages in private pharmacies Conclusions: pharmacological treatment for COVID-19 represents an important expense for the public health system and for families through out-of-pocket expenses It is urgent to design and implement regulatory measures aiming to improve the access to drug therapy (for Covid-19) in order to have drugs sold at accessible prices