West Africa: The Challenges of Accessing Quality Medicines

opinion

It is funny. The more I listen to pharmaceutical industry players on increasing access to quality medicines, the more relevant Nkrumah's African unity becomes.

And yet for an industry where the supply and distribution of medicines is described as "more than a mafia" in the words of Ghanaian Pharmacist Enoch Osafoe, this is certainly no laughing matter. The World Health Organization defines access within the framework of selection, supply, financing and health systems. From the perspective of the man on the street however, all these pillars remain potentially meaningless unless they result in his ability to buy top quality drugs at prices that are not financially emasculating to him. In other words, to what extent does the end user get the needed drug in the right quantities with the appropriate certified levels of quality?

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