Stefan Cassar was recently awarded the Combino Pharm award for his presentation during the annual University of Malta Pharmacy Symposium on the study entitled ‘Clinical practice and pricing insights into medicine access intelligence’.
Cassar carried out the study by analysing real-patient case scenarios where there was a barrier to accessing a medicine. Fieldwork for the study was carried out at Medicines Intelligence and Access Unit at the Malta Medicines Authority. The results showed that the most common reason for a medicine’s inaccessibility was that the product was not available in Malta, followed by the price. Out of 20 cases followed during the study, 14 were resolved positively with the patient ultimately gaining access to the required medicine. The study indicated key priority areas that lead to barriers to patients accessing a medicine and validated.