Medicines Pakistan International: A New Pharmaceutical

Medicines Pakistan International: A New Pharmaceutical
Policy Initiative in Pakistan
www.medicinespakistan.org



Health system and policy research is scant in
Pakistan. For evidence based decision-making, reliable
data is vital and the first step to build effective
health policies around the globe. Pharmaceutical
policy is a branch of health policy, which deals with
the aspects related to safety, efficacy, quality,
access to affordable drugs, and the quality use of
medicines.
In Pakistan like many other developing countries, an
understanding of pharmaceutical policy is lacking. In
this backdrop, it was thought to establish an informal
web based group to debate pharmaceutical situation and
to connect people and ideas. The information and
discussion could then be disseminated to concerned
policy makers. Medicine Pakistan International is a
voluntary group of conscious and sensitized
individuals who are willing to promote and in-breed
pharmaceutical policy education in the country. Our
aim is to encourage the culture of researching,
exploring, studying, documenting and examining
pharmaceutical policy.

Though living in different countries, across regions
and continents, the members share a common passion and
vision to document and improve pharmaceutical
situation in Pakistan.
The objectives of the group are: to discuss
pharmaceutical situation, promotional practices of
pharmaceutical industry, safety, efficacy, access,
quality and affordability of medicines
Some of the policy issues would be:
· Ever wondered why there are confusing a statement
regarding drug prices in Pakistan. What is the
reality?
· Pharmaceutical Industry is growing; export is
booming but does it really help to improve access and
affordability in Pakistan?
· Does pharmaceutical industry follow any ethical
norms regarding drug promotion? If yes, how they are
being implemented?
· What are the laws concerning medicine usage in
Pakistan, how these laws can be improved?
· Can we use generic medicines to improve access and
affordability in the country?
· Are we imparting, “people centered education” to our
medical and pharmacy students according to the
changing global public health scenario?
· Is there any role pharmacist has to play in our
healthcare system? What a does a pharmacist do? Can we
employ clinical pharmacy services to improve drug
usage situation in the hospitals in Pakistan?
Our task is to probe answers to questions like present
ones and many more to come.
To document these issues, we have launched a
discussion group. Also several doctoral projects are
undergoing, find out more on our projects page.
http://medicinespakistan.org/projects/
For more information, visit www.medicinespakistan.org




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Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar, PhD
Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice
School of Pharmacy
Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences
85 Park Road, Grafton
The University of Auckland