E-DRUG: China's role in access to essential medicines
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The growth of China in the future will have a considerable impact on
essential medicines. To date I have not seen any article that discusses
China's roll in that regard. If you do have this available, would you
mind sharing it with me. This question is aimed to open a
debate that would lead us to considering the possible impact China's
growth would have on the access to essential medicines.
João L. Carapinha
Director
Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy Programme
Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology
University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg, South Africa
www.wits.ac.za/peppro
João Carapinha (PEPPRO) <carapinhaj@therapy.wits.ac.za>
Tel: +27 (11) 7172269
Fax: +27 (11) 6424355
E-DRUG: China's role in access to essential medicines (2)
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Dear e-druggers,
This is indeed a very important subject and I personally look forward to
the debate, especially in the area of finished products. In the meantime,
the impression one gets from time to time, based on anecdotes, is that
China is still busy optimising its GMP for a wider and robust international
stature. Some also say that the pharmaceutical industry is still
preoccupied with meeting national demands.
One personal experience I have definitely had is difficulty with communication. It is not so easy, for example, to see a Chinese Pharmaceutical company website which is
multilingual. When this issue was recently discussed informally within my organisation, I suggested that there might be lessons to learn on ways to tackle the communication problem from the garment industry, which is ruffling so many feathers these days!
However, to return to João L. Carapinha's important point, if this matter has not yet been discussed, it will be worth our time. If information already exists, I am sure many e-druggers will benefit from how to get access to it. Even in the latter case, further debate will still be useful.
Murtada M. Sesay
Technical Officer (Pharmaceuticals)
UNICEF Supply Division