How long does it take for new pharmaceuticals to reach low and middle-income countries?

That is the question considered by Wouters and Kuha (2024) in a recent Health Affairs article. The authors use IQVIA data between 1982 and 2024 on the timing of drug launches and estimate median delay times using a Kaplan Meier estimates. They find that:

From the first launch globally, the median time to availability was 2.7 years for high-income countries, 4.5 years for upper-middle-income countries, 6.9 years for lower-middle-income countries, and 8.0 years for low-income countries. The gap between richer (high- and upper-middle-income) and poorer (lower-middle- and low-income) countries remained largely unchanged over time.

Moreover, the authors also find that about three-quarters (74%) of first launches occurred in eight countries with most first launches occurring (in order) in: US, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, France, Germany, and Japan.

You can read the full article here.