Access to Heart Failure Medicines in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An Analysis of Essential Medicines Lists, Availability, Price, and Affordability

Agarwal, A.; Husain, M.J.; Datta, B. et al. Circulation: Heart Failure (2022) CC
Heart failure (HF) is a leading global public health problem with >64 million prevalent cases globally. Patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) from low- and middle-income countries experience a 22% to 58% higher 1-year mortality rate than those in high-income countries.1 Guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) consisting of ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors or ARB (angiotensin receptor blockers) or ARNI (angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitors), β-blockers, MRA (mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists), and SGLT2 (sodium-glucose cotransporter 2) inhibitors substantially reduces mortality among patients with HFrEF. These medicines are among the most cost-effective interventions and are thus included as the highest priority health system interventions recommended by the Disease Control Priorities Project.2 Despite this high-quality evidence, GDMT remains widely underutilized in low- and middle-income countries resulting in widespread undertreatment of patients with HFrEF due to health system-, provider-, and patient-level barriers.1 National essential medicines lists (EMLs) promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) guide countries on which medications to purchase in the setting of limited resources and have resulted in higher procurement and availability of essential medicines in the public sector.3 We provide a cross-sectional analysis of national EMLs in 53 low- and middle-income countries, and availability, price, and affordability of GDMT in select countries to identify potential barriers to access to these essential medicines for patients with HFrEF.