Pharmacy-based dispensing of antimicrobial agents without prescription in India: appropriateness and cost burden in the private sector

Table 3 Cost estimation of the practice of non-prescription-based antimicrobial sales in the private sector

	Scenario 1	Scenario 2
Total population in India (in 2013) [13]	1267	1267
Population 15 years and above [13]	900	900
Population 0–14 years [13]	367	367
Cost of antibiotics - 5-day course [9]	$ 1.9	$ 1.9
Number of annual upper respiratory infection episodes in adults [10]	2.5	2.5
Number of annual diarrhea episodes in children [11,12]	2.1	2.1
Total number of upper respiratory infection episodes in adults	2249	2249
Total number of diarrhea episodes children	772	772
Total number of ALL episodes in the population	3021	3,021
Proportion of ill population visiting allopathic pharmacies [15,16]	30 %	45 %
Total number of ill population visiting pharmacies	906	1359
66 % dispense antimicrobial drugs (based on study)	598	897
Total annual cost of unwarranted antimicrobial drugs	1136	1704

The estimation takes into account existing data on population size, infection episodes per year for each age group, and proportion of population visiting allopathic pharmacies. Two scenarios are considered based on whether 30 % or 45 % of the ill population visits pharmacies. Numbers shown are in millions

ISSN: 2047-2994