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Quality assurance of medicines supplied to low-income and middle-income countries: poor products in shiny boxes?
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  • Published on: 12 June 2018
    Medicines in Nepal: What do we know about it’s quality?
    • Pawan Upadhyaya, Resident B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences
    • Other Contributors:
      • Avinash K Sunny, Resident

    Medicines supplied in low and middle income countries are a matter of concern especially in regard to their quality. This article has raised a very genuine issue regarding the quality of medicine supplied to low and middle income countries(Nebot Giralt et al. 2017). This comment has been written in context to Nepal, a low income country as per the World Bank classification with population of around 28 million, out of which around 25 % of the people are living below the poverty line and 80% of the people living in rural areas(Central Bureau of Statistics 2015). The current ongoing Mass Drug Administration (MDA) for Elephantiasis in Nepal as a target to eliminate filariasis by 2020 has not been able to achieve its target due to poor compliance to the medicine. One of the reason could be due to people questioning about the quality of medicine distributed by government which could be the result of news spread five years back which stated five deaths, which later on was declared MDA not being the cause of death and more than 800 people falling ill after taking the medications. But still the fact cannot be ignored without proper investigation(Pandey 2012). 
    Still, many regions of the country lack access to basic health facility and essential medicine. The government of Nepal as per the national health policy has listed around 70 different drugs like anti-viral, anti-protozoal, some drugs for non-communicable diseases and so on to be distributed free of cost. The few p...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.