{"title":"Wholesale, pharmacy mark-up, and retail price dynamics under a declaration-based medicine pricing reform in Kosovo.","authors":"Toskë Kryeziu, Mimoza Basholli Salihu, Venesa Lupçi, Ufuk Bağcı, Aida Loshaj Shala","doi":"10.1080/14737167.2026.2746142","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Medicines' price control is commonly employed to enhance price transparency and affordability; however, empirical evidence on its effects following first-time implementation in European markets with developing pharmaceutical regulatory frameworks remains limited.</p><p><strong>Research design and methods: </strong>This repeated cross-sectional analysis of administrative databases evaluated the official Kosovo medicine price list, consisting of 19 published price-list versions (V1.0, Feb 2025 to V1.18, 25 June 2026), focusing on version-specific changes in final wholesale and retail prices.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 69,683 medicine-version records and 5,720 unique products were identified. Among 1,937 medicines included in both V1.0 and V1.18, the wholesale price rose in 1,088 cases (56.17%), fell in 501 (25.86%) cases, and remained unchanged in 348 (17.97%). The retail price increased in 1,205 cases (62.21%), declined in 697 (35.98%), and remained stable in 35 cases (1.81%). The concordance between retail and wholesale price direction was observed in 1,535 cases (79.25%).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The price-leveling worked more like a recalibration of the regulatory system based on declarations than a consistent reduction of prices, involving concurrent adjustments, removals, and additions in the price list as well as some retail-level discordances driven by the regulated pharmacy mark-up and value-added tax (VAT) rules.</p>","PeriodicalId":12244,"journal":{"name":"Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2026-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14737167.2026.2746142","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Medicines' price control is commonly employed to enhance price transparency and affordability; however, empirical evidence on its effects following first-time implementation in European markets with developing pharmaceutical regulatory frameworks remains limited.
Research design and methods: This repeated cross-sectional analysis of administrative databases evaluated the official Kosovo medicine price list, consisting of 19 published price-list versions (V1.0, Feb 2025 to V1.18, 25 June 2026), focusing on version-specific changes in final wholesale and retail prices.
Results: A total of 69,683 medicine-version records and 5,720 unique products were identified. Among 1,937 medicines included in both V1.0 and V1.18, the wholesale price rose in 1,088 cases (56.17%), fell in 501 (25.86%) cases, and remained unchanged in 348 (17.97%). The retail price increased in 1,205 cases (62.21%), declined in 697 (35.98%), and remained stable in 35 cases (1.81%). The concordance between retail and wholesale price direction was observed in 1,535 cases (79.25%).
Conclusions: The price-leveling worked more like a recalibration of the regulatory system based on declarations than a consistent reduction of prices, involving concurrent adjustments, removals, and additions in the price list as well as some retail-level discordances driven by the regulated pharmacy mark-up and value-added tax (VAT) rules.
期刊介绍:
Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research (ISSN 1473-7167) provides expert reviews on cost-benefit and pharmacoeconomic issues relating to the clinical use of drugs and therapeutic approaches. Coverage includes pharmacoeconomics and quality-of-life research, therapeutic outcomes, evidence-based medicine and cost-benefit research. All articles are subject to rigorous peer-review.
The journal adopts the unique Expert Review article format, offering a complete overview of current thinking in a key technology area, research or clinical practice, augmented by the following sections:
Expert Opinion – a personal view of the data presented in the article, a discussion on the developments that are likely to be important in the future, and the avenues of research likely to become exciting as further studies yield more detailed results
Article Highlights – an executive summary of the author’s most critical points.