Drug usage by outpatients in Croatia during an 8-year period: Influence of changes in pricing policy.

Objective: The aim of our study was to investigate the changes in drug usage and financial expenditure according to legal changes in Croatia during the period 2001 - 2008, especially considering pricing policy.

Materials: The data on outpatient drug usage during the studied period was obtained from the Croatian National Health Insurance (CNHI). CNHI maintains a database on drugs prescribed by primary health care physicians and dispensed by pharmacies.

Methods: The data was calculated and presented in defined daily doses (DDD) per inhabitant per year for antibiotics and in DDD/1,000 inhabitants/day for other drugs. The data is also presented in Euro/DDD and the financial expenditures are presented in Euros.

Result: During the investigated period drug usage increased 81.33%, while financial expenditure increased 77.23%. While total DDD/1,000 increased ~ 10% every year, financial expenditure increased 10 - 20% annually until 2006, but since then there have been no significant changes.

Conclusion: Pricing policy changes could influence drug financial expenditure considerably in the short-term, but it is also important to apply a combination of measures for drug expenditure control. Numerous interventions from authorities from different countries all over the world, prove that there is still no so called "gold standard" which could restrain growing usage and expenditure of drugs. Clinical pharmacologists and clinical pharmacists should be included in these processes.