Willingness to pay and price elasticity of demand for long-acting injectable cabotegravir among men who have sex with men in Guangxi, China

Shiwen Chen; Yuhua Ruan; Lu Liu; Hengyan Pei; Yu Jiang; Tengda Huang; Yuxia Wei; Litai Qin; Xuebin Dai; Yu Liu; Junhui Liu; Yihong Xie

doi:10.3389/fphar.2024.1367830

Willingness to pay and price elasticity of demand for long-acting injectable cabotegravir among men who have sex with men in Guangxi, China

Front Pharmacol. 2024 Oct 15:15:1367830. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2024.1367830. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Shiwen Chen^#¹, Yuhua Ruan^#², Lu Liu¹, Hengyan Pei¹, Yu Jiang¹, Tengda Huang¹, Yuxia Wei¹, Litai Qin¹, Xuebin Dai¹, Yu Liu¹, Junhui Liu³, Yihong Xie¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (SKLID), National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention (NCAIDS), Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Beijing, China.
³ Division of AIDS Control and Prevention, Nanning Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanning, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Objectives: There is still no study focused on willingness to pay for long-acting injectable cabotegravir (CAB-LA) after it was available on the market in the United States in 2021. Here, we explored the willingness to pay for CAB-LA and associated factors and price elasticity of demand (PED) of CAB-LA among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Guangxi, China.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Univariate and multivariate ordinal logistic regression analyses were performed to explore the associated factors of willingness to pay for CAB-LA. PED was used to measure the change in the number of participants willing to pay to a change in price.

Results: A total of 1,006 MSM were recruited, among which 84.1% were aged between 18 and 39 years old. The median (interquartile) of the maximum amount of willing to pay for CAB-LA was 200 (100-500) Chinese yuan (CNY) per month. Most (84.2%) were willing to pay less than 600 CNY per month. The number of participants willing to pay for CAB-LA significantly increased with decrease in the price. When the price (CNY per month) decreased from 600 to 500, 500 to 400, 400 to 300, and 300 to 200, PED was 3.13, 1.64, 1.33, and 1.17, respectively. The maximum amount of willing to pay for CAB-LA was positively associated with younger age (vs. ≥40 years group, 18-24 years group, aOR: 1.94, 95% CI: 1.32-2.85; 25-39 year group, aOR: 1.70, 95% CI: 1.20-2.42), being high educated (vs. middle school or lower group, high school or college group, aOR: 1.61, 95% CI: 1.06-2.48; bachelor's degree or above group, aOR: 2.21, 95% CI: 1.41-3.49), monthly income ≥6000 CNY (vs. <3000 CNY, aOR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.02-2.09), being bisexual/unsure sexual orientation (vs. gay, aOR: 1.73, 95% CI: 1.24-2.43), and heard of PrEP and used (vs. never heard of PrEP, aOR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.11-2.77).

Conclusion: The maximum amount of willing to pay for CAB-LA was low in Guangxi, China. PED of CAB-LA is relatively elastic. The waived patent protection should be considered for the wide promotion of CAB-LA, and the health education should be strengthened to improve the recognition of CAB-LA.

Keywords: long-acting injectable cabotegravir; men who have sex with men; pre-exposure prophylaxis; price elasticity of demand; willingness to pay.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2022YFC2305205; 2022YFC2305201), National Natural Science Foundation of China (11971479; 82260670), Guangxi Bagui Honor Scholarship, and Chinese State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control.