E-DRUG: Pharmaceutical Policy Courses
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About three weeks ago, Hazel Bradley posted an E-Drug message about short courses being offered at the University of Western Cape in July.
One is on Medicines Supply Management (9-13 July) and the other is on Pharmaceutical Policy and Supply Management (16-20 July).
I will be involved in both courses but I want to highlight the Pharmaceutical Policy course.
In the past, Boston University in collaboration with WHO mounted Drug Policy Issues for Developing Countries courses. These were offered in Boston, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Beirut and Tashkent/Samarkand in Uzbekistan. Many senior managers, including the present DG in South Africa attended these courses.
WHO in collaboration with UNICEF offers the annual Technical Briefing Seminars in Geneva in English and French (http://www.who.int/medicines/technical_briefing/en/ ). Utrecht University in collaboration with WHO, offers a short course in July called Pharmaceutical Policy Analysis. (www.utrechtsummerschool.nl<http://www.utrechtsummerschool.nl%3chttp:/www.utrechtsummerschool.nl>) This is a more academic course and focuses on the variety of methods that can be used to assess the effects of policy. But apart from the WHO seminar and the Utrecht course, I do not know of other courses that focus on Pharmaceutical Policy and Management for senior managers.
In South Africa, there is a position in the government service for Pharmaceutical Policy Specialists. The requirements for this position are a B.Pharm degree, current registration as a pharmacist plus three to five years' experience. One advertisement for a Senior Pharmaceutical Policy Specialist did mention a Minimum Requirement for various short courses but did not specify which courses these should be.
In developing the University of Western Cape short course, that will also be offered as a distance learning module as part of the MPH programme or as a stand-alone continuing education module in 2019, we consulted with Pharmaceutical Policy Specialists both inside South Africa and from a number of African countries. What we have decided to do is to use existing materials from the UWC Health policy course related to understanding health policy and using simple tools such as Stakeholder Analysis.
Then we would apply these approaches to selected issues including National Medicines Policies, medicines quality, human resources for the pharmacy sector, antimicrobial resistance, local production, selection and use of medicines and corruption in the pharmaceutical sector. There are obviously other topics that could have been included such as medicine pricing, trade and access as well as Access and Universal Health Coverage. But in five days you can only do so much!
So I have two questions for E-Druggers:
Firstly, are you aware of other courses that cater for senior pharmacy systems managers who want to move into the policy area? If so please let us know about these courses, their strengths and weaknesses and what they prepare the course participants to do.
Secondly, please review the topic areas that we will address in the July course at UWC and suggest what should be added or removed for future courses.
With so much of national health budgets spent on medicines, it seems to me that we need more people with an interest in pharmaceutical policy and management to be trained. I hope that this course will be a step in this direction but I would welcome the views of E-Druggers.
Thank you.
Richard Laing
For additional information about the UWC courses please contact Dr Hazel Bradley
Tel: 021 959 2630,
Cell: 072 297 9932,
Email: hbradley@uwc.ac.za
or websites:
http://www.uwcsoph.co.za/index.php/news-and-announcements/faculty-announcements-events/160-pharmaceutical-public-health
http://www.uwcsoph.co.za/index.php/short-courses/winter-school
Richard Laing
Professor, Department of Global Health
Extraordinary Professor Boston University School of Public Health, University of Western Cape, Belville, South Africa
E mail richardl@bu.edu