Adherence at 2 years with distribution of essential medicines at no charge: the CLEAN Meds randomized clinical trial
In this article, the authors explores the reasons behind the low adherence to medicines, including the cost borne by patients. They reveal that although Some jurisdictions publicly fund medicines for the general population, many jurisdictions do not, and such policies are controversial. To their knowledge, no trials studying free access to a wide range of medicines have been conducted.
In this study, the authors observed that free distribution of essential medicines to patients with cost-related non-adherence substantially increased adherence, did not affect surrogate health outcomes, and reduced total healthcare costs over 2 years.
