ArticleCost effectiveness and resource allocation : C/E2013
The role of discounts and loss leaders in medicine procurement in Austrian hospitals - a primary survey of official and actual medicine prices.
Article in Cost effectiveness and resource allocation : C/E, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement information (PPRI): evolution and impact of a policy network over two decades.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2026Review
- Impact of changes in the methodology of external price referencing on medicine prices: discrete-event simulation.Cost effectiveness and resource allocation : C/E · 2020Article
- The Expiry of HumiraFrontiers in pharmacology · 2020Article
- Barriers for Access to New Medicines: Searching for the Balance Between Rising Costs and Limited Budgets.Frontiers in public health · 2018Review
- Competition Between Biosimilars and Patented Biologics: Learning from European and Japanese Experience.PharmacoEconomics · 2016Article
- Introduction and Utilization of High Priced HCV Medicines across Europe; Implications for the Future.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundKnowledge about the prices of medicines used in hospitals, particularly the actually achieved ones, is scant. There are indications of large discounts and the provision of medicines cost-free to Austrian hospitals. The study aims to survey the official and actual prices of medicines procured by Austrian hospitals and to compare them to the out-patient prices.
methodsPrimary price collection of the official hospital list prices and the actually achieved prices for 12 active ingredients as of the end of September 2009 in five general hospitals in Austria and analysis of the 15 most commonly used presentations.
resultsThe official hospital list prices per unit differed considerably (from 1,500 Euro for an oncology medicine to 0.20 Euro for a generic cardiovascular medicine). For eight on-patent medicines (indications: oncology, anti-inflammatory, neurology-multiple sclerosis and blood) actual hospital medicine prices equaled the list prices (seven medicines) or were lower (one medicine) in four hospitals, whereas one hospital always reported higher actual prices due to the application of a wholesale mark-up. The actual hospital prices of seven medicines (cardiology and immunomodulation) were below the official hospital prices in all hospitals; of these all cardiovascular medicines were provided free-of-charge. Hospital prices were always lower than out-patient prices (pharmacy retail price net and reimbursement price).
conclusionThe results suggest little headroom for hospitals to negotiate price reductions for "monopoly products", i.e. medicines with no therapeutic alternative. Discounts and cost-free provision (loss leaders) appear to be granted for products of strategic importance for suppliers, e.g. cardiovascular medicines, whose treatment tends to be continued in primary care after discharge of the patient.
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.