Breve 24. The pharmaceutical price regulation in El Salvador

His policy brief is based on a webinar presented by Luis Alejandro Rivera, Chief of the Pricing Unit at the Dirección Nacional de Medicamentos (National Directorate of Medicines DNM) in El Salvador. The presentation was given on July 2019. Rising prices of medications are a global concern as healthcare expenditures soar and more patients are unable to access the medicines they need. El Salvador has managed to control and lower the price of prescription medicines for both innovator and generic medicines, while maintaining a well-functioning and cost-saving pharmaceutical market. This publication presents takeaways, such as price setting methods, the identification of appropriate market segments, and the introduction of online monitoring platforms, so that other policymakers may use them when introducing price regulation in their own pharmaceutical markets.