OBJECTIVES: Turkey applies molecule-based equivalence grouping and Social Security Institution (SGK), the sole public payer of pharmaceuticals, pays a cap which is at most 10% over the lowest (base) price of each group. As of October 1 2014, SGK lowered the cap to base price for selected 15 groups. The objective of this study is to analyze the preliminary impact of this policy change and compute whether it provides necessary saving and price reduction.  METHODS: Claims data from SGK for all drugs included in the selected groups were collected monthly for June and July 2014, denoted as pre-policy change period; October and November 2014, defined as post-policy change period. Price changes, saving impact, patient contribution rate, and utilization rates were compared and analyzed. RESULTS: Among 212 drugs in those groups, the price of 180 drugs stayed the same whereas 6 increased and 26 decreased. With this policy shift, SGK generated a saving of nearly 10%; base price, prescription substitution, and price erosion impacts contributed by 7, 1, and 2 percentage points respectively. Besides, cost per unit, weighted average of total sales value divided by total sales volume, reduced by 9% compared to pre-policy change period. Base-priced drugs’ sales volume (value) climbed by 3 (6) percentage points. Although it was estimated that patient contribution rate would rise by 8 percentage points on average after the new policy, in reality it reached 18% with an increase of 5 percentage points, thanks to price reduction due to competition and higher utilization of base-priced drugs. CONCLUSIONS: Based on primary data, it seems the new policy provided the desired effect on price reduction and utilization increase of base-priced drugs, hence saving with minor impact on patient contribution.