Pharmacists Play Key Role in Safe Medicine Use (Essay Sample)

An edited version of this article was later published by the Daily Nation in Kenya on the World Pharmacists Day 2019
Link https://nation.africa/kenya/blogs-opinion/opinion/pharmacists-play-key-role-in-safe-medicines-204348
PHARMACISTS PLAY KEY ROLE IN SAFE MEDICINES
According to World Health Organization (WHO) access to Health Products and Technologies (HPTs) is one of the six building blocks of a well-functioning health system framework. Medicines form the bulk of these HPTs. It is imperative to add that these medicines must be of assured quality, safe, efficacious and cost-effective. This is in line with this year’s World Pharmacist Day’s theme of ‘Safe and Effective Medicines for all.’
When President Kenyatta proclaimed Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as one of his four main agenda for the period 2017-2022, it was a no-brainer that HPTs would have a central role. In fact, the UHC roadmap estimated financial requirements needed to achieve UHC, put acquisition of health commodities for public health facilities at about 57 percent of the total budget. Health commodities take the lion’s share of health resources, thereby reinforcing the role of HPTs in achieving the highest attainable standard of health stipulated in Article 43 of the Kenyan Constitution.
The onus of safe and rational medication use falls squarely on pharmacists. They are the Human Resources for Health (HRH), another health system building block, that are best trained to assure the public that whatever medicines they use from hospitals and pharmacy outlets will not harm them. Pharmacists in Kenya are the major players in all stages of the drug management cycle; manufacturing, selection, procurement, distribution and use.
The metastasizing threat of counterfeit medicines is not unique to Kenya, its estimated turnover globally is in excess of US$75 billion annually. In fact, a WHO report in 2017 started that 1 in 10 medical products circulating in low- and middle-income countries is either substandard or falsified. Substandard medicines may be licensed but they do not have the potency to achieve the desired pharmacological action. This may because of inadequate active ingredient, contamination with other undesired molecules, degradation due to inappropriate storage or the medicine may have expired. Falsified medicines on the other hand simply do not contain the claimed active pharmaceutical ingredient.
In simpler words, when a diagnosis of malaria is made and you are put on anti-malarial tablets, there is a 10 percent chance that the tablets you are taking contain just potato rather than the active pharmaceutical ingredient! It is indeed grave for majority of Kenyans who place their trust in the role of pharmacists.
It is incumbent upon pharmacists through guiding national drug policies, standards, guidelines and regulation to ensure that medicines available locally meet the expected therapeutic standards. Holding various positions that formulate and direct policy on medicines, centrally at the Ministry of Health and locally at various county governments, pharmacists should ensure safe, efficacious and cost-effective medicines is the main agenda. As part of regulation, through Pharmacy and Poisons Board and as regulatory officers in manufacturing firms, pharmacists should champion measures that plug the gaps that unfortunately allow unsafe medicines to reach Kenyan patients.
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