Pharmaceuticals are essential to achieve health outcomes, but are at the same time a major cost factor in every health system. From a patient perspective, access to pharmaceuticals is a proxy for the functioning of the health system. With increasing economic strength, patients become more demanding with regard to access to modern, sophisticated drugs and providers become more aggressive in marketing those drugs. This paper reflects the situation in the pharmaceutical sector in Turkey, identifies critical issues, and discusses policy options based on current trends and the overall policy objectives of the Turkish government. This paper is structured as follows: chapter one gives introduction
chapter two gives overall policy objectives in the pharmaceutical sector in Turkey
chapter three presents institutional and regulatory framework
chapter four presents reimbursement rules
chapter five focuses on governance issues in the pharmaceutical sector
chapter six gives market overview
chapter seven gives payment for pharmaceuticals in Turkey
chapter eight presents prescribing practices - rational use of medicines
and chapter nine gives conclusions and way forward.