Dear Friends,
Edrugger Raffa Ravinetto sent me this useful message:
Ref: Table of contents | BMJ Global Health
At the above web link, you will find all the papers published for the BMJ Global Health Special Issue on Social and ethical issues of poor quality and poor use of medical products, with Koen Peeters, Patricia Kingori and myself as guest editors. The special issue includes, in addition to our attached closing editorial, nine diverse papers. As summarized on the Editorial, in these papers:
- Macé et al reflected on how international procurement policies could incorporate the concept of regulatory ‘maturity level’, so as to acknowledge the efforts of countries that invest in regulatory strengthening.
- Enright explored some ethical dilemmas that could, directly or indirectly, compromise the quality of medical products procured for the medical programmes of international non-governmental organizations.
- Kusynová et al called for the scale up of a course on SF medical products for undergraduate pharmacy students, which may empower all pharmacists across health systems to proactively protect communities from SF medical products.
- Noor et al presented the findings of a study in Pakistan, which reveals and explains the distortion of prescribing behaviours, caused by pharmaceutical marketing and financial incentivisation to general practitioners.
- Hamill et al investigated the under-studied issue of quality of active pharmaceutical ingredients, and called for increased attention to the risks of regulatory circumvention.
- Nistor et al discussed how political and economic factors influence the risk of falsified medicines in Romania: they warn against exclusive focus on enforcing quality-assurance, reminding that ensuring access to affordable medicines is equally critical to eliminate the factors that incentivise falsified medicines.
- Hasnida et al presented an investigation of the political and economic determinants of SF medicines in Indonesia: the political pressure to reduce prices and certain incentives can drive markets for SF medicines, and policy-makers should consider the impact of rules governing health financing, procurement, taxation and industry, on medicines quality.
- Kootstra and Kleinhout-Vliek presented a realist review of Tirkish pharmaceutical track-and-trace systems; they emphasise the interplay between technical solutions, contextual factors, and the need to align incentives for all actors in a continuous implementation process.
- Hamill et al also looked at the ‘on the ground’ effectiveness of the WHO Global Surveillance and Monitoring System for SF medicines in Tanzania, and revealed hidden assumptions about regulator behaviour and motivations.
All papers may be accessed easily at Table of contents | BMJ Global Health, and perhaps everybody will find here a reading close to their own or institutional interests. And please, feel free to broadly share with your contacts!
Best,
Raffaella
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