Impacto Del COVID-19 En El Sector Farmacéutico Ecuatoriano: Desregulación De Precios Techo En Fármacos OTC

This research project aims to clarify the current problems that have arisen for the pharmaceutical sector since the arrival of the covid-19 health crisis in the direct sales of OTC medicines business line and the contraction of income of this operating group due to the conservation of expired laws for this economic line. The OTC line does not include essential products for human consumption, and due to its relatively elastic demand, it suffers from large impacts on billing with negative externalities. Since the imposition of Executive Decree No. 400 in 2014, various OTC products have become regulated under a ceiling price setting regime.This excess of regulations reduces the private sector`s supply incentives, which results in an income reduction for the sector. Due to these problems, it has been proposed to transfer 29 drugs regulated with active ingredients from the OTC line, towards a price-free regime, toboost income for the business unit as the objective of the study. Once the study was completed, it was possible to conclude through the use of statistical tools such as hypothesis testing that by deregulating medicines with OTC fixed ceiling price, national production will be promoted, there would be increased revenues for the sector, mitigate the consequences of the ceiling pricing and the contraction of OTC line income due to the pandemic.,