E-DRUG: expired drug donations (cont)
-----------------------------------
Dear colleagues,
To add something to the discussion regarding (expired) drug donations. I
agree with Beverley Snell that the recommendation by Geoff Stark to use
certain over-expiry drugs for donations contravenes the guidelines for
pharmaceutical donations. Although one might consider using these 'stable'
drugs for donations after their expiry-dates, there are besides ethical also
economical reasons not to donate these drugs. Determining which drugs to
donate and which not can also be the subject of economical and practical
analysis.
To consider a few variables:
- The work that is done to collect and distribute drugs
- The costs and professional expertise that are needed to evaluate the
expiry-date of the collected drugs
- The costs and professional expertise that is needed to store, transport
and distribute these drugs
Refering to the principle 'maximum benefit to the recipient' of the
guidelines for drug donations the recipient organisation should never have
any costs in this respect. Good Donation Practices also means professional
donation practices. One can seriously consider whether buying (essential)
generic drugs at the non-profit wholesaler is not cheaper than
professionally collecting (returned) drugs. I know of at least three NGOs in
the Netherlands, Spain and Germany who considered these economical arguments
as being very important in their decision to stop donating drugs.
I welcome more remarks in this field since these are important arguments in
discussion with donors of returned drugs.
Regards from Amsterdam,
Mark Raijmakers
Wemos Foundation
Wemos is coordinator of the Dutch Committtee on Drug Donations, and has the
secretariat of the HAI-working group on drug donations.
Wemos Foundation
P.O. Box 1693
1000 BR Amsterdam
The Netherlands
+31-20-420.22.22
+31-20-620.50.94
wemos@tip.nl
--
Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.