Predicting pharmaceutical prices. Advances based on purchase-level data and machine learning.

Journal: BMC public health
PMID:

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Increased costs in the health sector have put considerable strain on the public budgets allocated to pharmaceutical purchases. Faced with such pressures amplified by financial crises and pandemics, national purchasing authorities are presented with a puzzle: how to procure pharmaceuticals of the highest quality for the lowest price. The literature explored a range of impactful factors using data on producer and reference prices, but largely foregone the use of data on individual purchases by diverse public buyers.

Authors

  • Mihály Fazekas
    Department of Public Policy, Central European University, Quellenstraße 51, 1100, Vienna, Austria. fazekasm@ceu.edu.
  • Zdravko Veljanov
    Department of Public Policy, Central European University, Quellenstraße 51, 1100, Vienna, Austria.
  • Alexandre Borges de Oliveira
    World Bank, 1818 H Street, WA DC, 20433, USA.