| A review on the policy and practices of therapeutic drug uses in Bangladesh (2006) | |||||||||||
Abstract | |||||||||||
| Despite substantial progress in drug manufacturing, irrational drug use, inappropriate prescribing, inadequate access to essential drugs, and uncontrolled price are major problems affecting the total health care system badly of Bangladesh. This project is based on reviewing related literatures, newspapers articles and online searches using Pubmed and Google. Combinations of key words related to each of the subject areas were used. Websites of relevant institutions, government and non-government organisations were also searched. The obtained literatures were categorized and reviewed carefully. Most of the medications are prescribed inappropriately and polypharmacy is very common. Antibiotics are often prescribed irrationally without standard guidelines. Virtually, all the drugs are available without prescriptions and self-medications are highly common. Access to essential medicines is significantly less than that mentioned in the official documents. Price of essential medicines is not consistent and the drugs regulating authority does not have any control over pricing of drugs. Counterfeit medicines have deluged Bangladesh market with an estimated worth of US$100- US$150. Smaller drug manufacturers are engaged in the production substandard or fake drugs. Information on monitoring and reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADR) of the marketed drugs were not available. Management and utilisations of therapeutic drugs in Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable. The drug controlling authority should be more vigilant to ensure appropriate use and availability of medicines. Advanced studies are required to assess drug use patterns in the country. | |||||||||||
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