Health Policy 84 (2007) 67–74 Effects of essential medicines on cardiovascular products available for the market in Thailand Siriporn Burapadaja a,* , Naohito Kawasaki b , Suporn Charumanee a , Fumihiko Ogata b a Faculty of Pharmacy, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand b Faculty of Pharmacy, Kinki University, Osaka 577-8502, Japan Abstract National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) is an important policy on drugs, which also covers the drug availability. However, the link between the list and the availability of medicine products for the market is not clear. The objectives of this study were to examine the effects of essential medicines (EM) on the patterns and values of cardiovascular products available for the market in Thailand. Issues investigated were proportions of products, expansions of generic names, involvement of producers and relation between the numbers of EM generic names and production values of products. Data sources were NLEM, Thailand Index of Medical Specialities and drug statistics by Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Results revealed the availability of 623 products from 127 generic names. On average, EM products showed significantly greater proportions and EM generic names demonstrated larger expansions than non-EM. Domestic producers contributed to List A products by a significantly higher percentage than foreign, but only foreign producers introduced List D products. There was a positive and significant relation between the numbers of EM generic names and the production values of products. In conclusion, it was clear that EM had effects on the patterns and the values of cardiovascular products available for the market. Subsequent prices and expenditure due to the patterns and values of product availability could be low or high. These findings could be advantageous in using essential medicines as a means to avoid the negative consequences by addressing the significance of its kinds and numbers when selecting it in the list. © 2007 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Keywords: Thailand; Cardiovascular products; Essential medicines; Medicine availability; Medicine market 1. Introduction Improvements of healthcare and health awareness have enabled people to have longer life, resulting in an increase in the elderly population. However, aging * Corresponding author. Tel.: +66 53 944343; fax: +66 53 222741. E-mail address: siriporn@pharmacy.cmu.ac.th (S. Burapadaja). could impair with several functional organs, especially the cardiovascular system, which is very important for every organ [1]. Cardiovascular disease is a main health problem experienced by the elderly and this chronic disease could lead to serious complications and death [2]. Prevention and treatment of this dis- ease is thus of a great concern among adults and elderly. Therefore, cardiovascular drugs are one of the 0168-8510/$ – see front matter © 2007 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2007.01.012