Availability and Affordability of Fertility Medicines in Abuja, Nigeria

Background: Infertility and childlessness in Nigeria have devastating consequences for families.Infertility treatment and Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) services are not accessible to many infertile couples due to the high cost of treatments.This study assessed the availability and affordability of fertility medicines to patients at different healthcare outlets in Abuja.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in several public (government) hospitals, private clinics, missionary hospitals, and private community pharmacies using a modified methodology manual of World Health Organization and Health Action International (HAI) for collection and analysis of medicine prices.The collected data was sorted and analyzed by the calculation of mean prices, percentage availability and profit margins, using Microsoft excel spreadsheet.Affordability in number of days' wages the least paid government worker will need to work to be able to purchase their medicines were also computed.Inferential analysis was calculated using students t-test and One-Way ANOVA with the aid of GraphPad Instat 3.0 with p < 0.05 interpreted as significant.Results: Out of the ten (10) fertility medicines studied, only six (6) innovator's brands were available.Menopur 75IU was more available (48.75%) in private clinics while community pharmacies had the least availability of all the fertility medications.At p<0.05, community pharmacies had a significantly higher profit margin for Menopur 75IU (30.01 3.00%), LG IVF HMG 75IU (31.86 2.93%) and Diclair HMG 75IU (34.14 2.93%) when compared to other facilities.The least paid unskilled government worker will need to work for 786.38 days to be able to pay for a complete treatment dose of Menopur 75IU compared to 635.67 days and 894.78 days for Diclair HMG 150IU and Gonal-F-75IU respectively.Fertility medicines were totally absent from all missionary hospitals and generic versions were not seen in all facilities studied. Conclusion:Fertility medicines had poor availability and are not affordable to most people residing in Abuja, Nigeria.There is a need for government subsidies and for pharmaceutical companies to invest in research and manufacturing affordable generic versions of fertility medicines.