Tonnes of inappropriate medicines arrive in SE Asia
Appropriate shipments should be put together in collaboration with
the WHO
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WHO/Dermot Tatlow
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Tonnes of inappropriate medicines have arrived in South-East Asia following the tsunami disaster, according to a report by Pharmaciens
Sans Frontières (PSF).
Medicines with leaflets in languages unknown to local health workers
and too short shelf lives are stockpiled in warehouses across the region.
The first and most urgent challenge faced by PSF teams working in the
affected countries is to act as “garbage collectors”, says
Ghislaine Soulier, a PSF spokeswoman.
In the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh alone, a warehouse the size of a
football pitch would not be sufficient to house all the unusable donations
sent by different individuals and organisations. In the rush to provide
relief, “the need to help” comes before the “real needs” of
the recipient countries, she added. “We’ve seen this time
and time again in all recent disasters.”
The biggest question asked in the PSF report is why tonnes of branded
medicines were shipped to South-East Asia when that part of the world
produces a large percentage of the generic medicines used in humanitarian
operations. The pharmaceutical companies in the region have the capacity
to supply the required medicine. Niyada Kiatying-Angsulee, of the faculty
of pharmaceutical sciences at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, said: “There
is no serious drug shortage in Thailand because we have a competent local
pharmaceutical industry and a good infrastructure developed by the ministry
of health.”
British pharmaceutical companies have donated both medicines and cash,
but according to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry,
these shipments have been put together in collaboration with the recipient
countries’ ministries of health and the World Health Organization.
PSF has now submitted a proposal for its first project in the region.
In partnership with local health agents and the WHO this project focuses
on the organisation of unusable donations and the distribution of quality
medicines in the province of Aceh.
Medicines in development The number of drugs
in development for diseases most likely to occur following the tsunami
disaster is low, reports Pharmaprojects, a company that tracks pharmaceutical
developments from early preclinical study through to launch. Outbreaks
of likely diseases include malaria, dengue haemorrhagic fever, Japanese
encephalitis, measles and cholera.
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Aid delivery rethink If the effects of natural
phenomena are to be minimised, aid delivery and investment in development
need to be completely rethought, authors of an article in the BMJ propose (2005;330:247). United Nations relief agencies should be
funded by assessed contributions from member countries. Donations
and spending should be refined and extended and all new development
programmes should examine the risk from disaster and seek to protect
infrastructure and economic processes from their worst effects.
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