Transparency in public pharmaceutical sector: the key informants’ perceptions from a developing country

Background Policymaking in the pharmaceutical sector plays a pivotal role in achieving the health systems’ goals. Transparency in the pharmaceutical policy could increase confidence in decision-making processes. This study aims to assess transparency in the public pharmaceutical sector of Iran. Methods This qualitative study with a content analysis approach was conducted in 2017 using the World Health Organization tool to explore pharmaceutical transparency. The perceptions of the various stakeholders of the health system through semi-structured interviews with a maximum variation of stakeholders were obtained in eight functions, including registration, licensing, inspection, promotion, clinical trials, selection, procurement, and distribution of medicines. Results There are some problems in two main categories: (1) General problems, including lack of transparency, conflict of interest, centralization, and monopoly. (2) Ethical problems include illegal payments, gifts, bribes, conflicts of interest, hidden power, hoarding, relationship-oriented behavior, medicine trafficking, and counterfeit medicine. Suggested solutions include evidence-based decision-making, the use of transparent and accountable processes, standardization, needs assessment, declaring a conflict of interest, skilled human resources, and tracking prescription. Conclusion Despite the development of effective pharmaceutical policy in the health care system and government interventions for the control of the market, in some functions, reviewing the pharmaceutical policy is essential. Additionally, declaring a conflict of interest statement must be at the core of policy development to provide greater transparency.

In Vitro Biopharmaceutical and Physicochemical Evaluation of Different Brands of Ciprofloxacin Marketed in Aden-Yemen

The current study conducted to evaluate the biopharmaceutical and physicochemical equivalence of the three available pharmaceutical dosage forms of ciprofloxacin (CIP) in the local markets (tablets, infusion and eye drops). Three brands for each dosage form were selected and coded as Tablets I, II, III; CIP infusion (Infusion I, II, III) and CIP eye drops (Eye drops I, II, III). Different in vitro quality control tests, physiochemical and determination of active ingredients contents were performed. All brands of tablets have a satisfactory result that complies with the pharmacopeia specification except the hardness of the tablets was more than the recommended value, and the salinity of Infusion II and III was lower than 0.9, the viscosity of the eye drops was lower than the specified value. Post-marketing surveillance is an essential issue to distinguish poor-quality medicines and must be routinely performed to weed out substandard and counterfeit medicine.

Comprehending the Role of Physicians and Counterfeit Medicine in Bangladesh

Counterfeit medicine is a dangerous problem in Bangladesh which make the country's healthcare system in more challenging. For a developing nation like Bangladesh, it is hard to find a perfect solution to curb this problem. According to the World Health Organization (2021), awareness is the key to prevent innocent patient from taking counterfeit medicine. Due to knowledge gap, it's hard for patients to detect the authenticity of medicine because it requires knowledge of medicinal formulation. Physicians of Bangladesh could play a vital role in preventing this counterfeit medicine problem by establishing guidance co-operation relationship with the patients. The study made a literature review of the concept of counterfeit medicine, conducted a bibliometric analysis of counterfeit medicine on Scopus database and provided a relationship flow diagram of prospective guidance relationship between physicians and patients. The study concluded that, this consultation service should be offered by the physicians to the patients and the study expected that, the patient willingly accepts it for getting the safeguard against counterfeit medicine. Keywords: Bibliometric Analysis, Physicians, Patients, Counterfeit Medicine, Bangladesh

Inventory of counterfeit drugs, history of antibiotics and presentation of the ministry in charge with four of the largest public health centers in Niger using them in 2016-2017

Context: Counterfeit medicine is a substance capable of curing a living, which is made fraudulently without responding to WHO standards. Today, the population Street increasingly to illicit markets to buy drugs at lower cost to the sellers. So, the sale of counterfeit medicines has first become the problem that tempts the media. Those drug supply have become not only a threat to the health of the population but also to the economy and security of many countries including in Niger. The street drug trade is a very growing activity in Niger. Antibiotic is a drug which treats infectious bacterial diseases. Associated with vaccination, it eliminates or greatly reduces the main epidemic diseases. Evidence: Surveys on the use of drugs and in particular antibiotics have been carried out. The people targeted are those of the Ministry of Public Health, health workers stationed in hospitals and referral health centers; pharmacists and drugstore vendors, street vendors. Results: The presentation of Ministry of Public Health in charge of health belonging to 4 greatest health centers were recorded as being used by the Nigerien population to have the most commonly antibiotics used by them. The βeta-lactam family (Amoxicillin, Ampicillin and Cloxacillin) (60/100); the Fluoro-quinolones family (ciprofloxacin) (20/100); the imidazole family (Metronidazol) (20/100) were the most used species. Conclusion: The review on counterfeit drugs, the history of antibiotics and the presentation of the main health centers involved in Niger provided substantial details on the use of drugs to treat infectious diseases. These complete basic data could certainly encourage some researchers to undertake research on other molecules which could lead to the quality control of these drugs for the treatment of the diseases which concern them and to have notions on the functioning of the services concerned by approaching these latter.

Proof-of-Concept of Detection of Counterfeit Medicine through Polymeric Materials Analysis of Plastics Packaging

The detection of counterfeit pharmaceuticals is always a major challenge, but the early detection of counterfeit medicine in a country will reduce the fatal risk among consumers. Technically, fast laboratory testing is vital to develop an effective surveillance and monitoring system of counterfeit medicines. This study proposed the combination of Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) for the quick detection of counterfeit medicines, through the polymer analysis of blister packaging materials. A sample set containing three sets of original and counterfeit medicine was analyzed using ATR-FTIR and DSC, while the spectra from ATR-FTIR were employed as a fingerprint for the polymer characterization. Intending to analyze the polymeric material of each sample, DSC was set at a heating rate of 10 °C min−l and within a temperature range of 0- 400 °C, with nitrogen as a purge gas at a flow rate of 20 ml min−an. The ATR-FTIR spectra revealed the chemical characteristics of the plastic packaging of fake and original medicines. Further analysis of the counterfeit medicine’s packaging with DSC exhibited a distinct difference from the original due to the composition of polymers in the packaging material used. Overall, this study confirmed that the rapid analysis of polymeric materials through ATR-FTIR and comparing DSC thermograms of the plastic in their packaging effectively distinguished counterfeit drug products.

Poor-Quality Medicines in Cameroon: A Critical Review

Poor-quality medicines are the cause of many public health and socioeconomic problems. We conducted a review to acquire an overview of the situation concerning such medicines in Cameroon. Different searches were performed on databases from several websites of the WHO, the Ministry of Public Health of Cameroon, the Anti-Counterfeit Medicine Research Institute, the Global Pharma Health Fund, and the Infectious Disease Data Observatory. We identified 92 publications comprised of 19 peer-reviewed studies and 73 alerts. Based on studies completed, 1,664 samples were analyzed, and the prevalence of substandard and falsified (SF) medicines could be estimated for 1,440 samples. A total of 67.5% of these samples were collected from the informal sector, 20.9% from the formal sector, and 11.6% from both sectors. We found a prevalence of SF medicines across the peer-reviewed studies of 26.9%, whereas most of the SF medicines belonged to the anti-infective class. The problem of SF medicines is not studied sufficiently in Cameroon; therefore, efforts should be made to conduct adequate studies in terms of representativity and methodology.

COVID-19: unprecedented challenges for Indian pharmaceutical industry and pharma emerging markets

<p class="abstract">WHO has declared the present outbreak of a new corona virus disease (COVID-19) as a global pandemic. The impact of novel COVID-19 epidemic is uncertain and unpredictable, which is also a challenging phase for the pharmaceutical industry across the globe. The rationale of this article is to compile existing research and published data and identify the various challenges among the pharmaceutical sector in India and other developing countries. To overcome from present epidemic effects such as increase in medicine price, disruption in the pharmaceutical supply chain, balancing between IPR and access to innovation and regulation on counterfeit medicine in developing countries, the certain possible strategies and solutions are discussed. The present article also emphasized the solidarity and global cooperation among developing countries to strengthen the pharmaceutical operations across India and other developing countries to meet the current demand during COVID-19 pandemic.</p>