Background
Major disparities have been reported in recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) availability among countries of different socioeconomic status.
Aims
To characterize variability of rtPA price, its availability, and its association with and impact on each country’s health expenditure (HE) resources.
Methods
We conducted a global survey to obtain information on rtPA price (50 mg vial, 2020 US Dollars) and availability. Country-specific data, including low, lower middle (LMIC), upper middle (UMIC), and high-income country (HIC) classifications, and gross domestic product (GDP) and HE, both nominally and adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), were obtained from World Bank Open Data. To assess the impact of rtPA cost, we computed the rtPA price as percentage of per capita GDP and HE and examined its association with the country income classification.