The Pharmaceutical Sector in Ghana

Seiter, Andreas ; Gyansa-Lutterodt, Martha

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABUSE;    ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE;    ACCOUNTABILITY;    ADEQUATE TREATMENT;    ADHERENCE TO TREATMENT;   

RP-ID  :  81022

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Main pharmaceutical policy goals inGhana are access to essential medicines for everybody,quality assurance for all drugs on the market, a functioningand efficient supply chain as well as rational use ofmedicines by professionals and patients. There is also acommitment to strengthen the domestic pharmaceuticalindustry, outlined under health industry in the nationalhealth policy. The National Health Insurance System (NHIS)has significantly improved access to medicines for insuredpatients, measured in increased utilization of facilitiesand rapidly growing turnover of revolving drug funds. Therisk is now that non-rational prescribing and fraud lead toa growing medicine bill that threatens financialsustainability of NHIS. On the other hand, National HealthInsurance Authority (NHIA) has the resources and purchasingpower to influence provider behavior as well as the marketin terms of quality and price. The purpose of this policynote is to provide a compact overview of the situation,trends and opportunities in the pharmaceutical sector inGhana as relevant to the strategic objectives in the fiveyear program of work. It summarizes data from a number ofrecent studies and reports that were done by a range ofpartners inside and outside the country as well asdiscussions with key stakeholders in the sector. The intentis to give decision makers up-to-date background informationand provide some suggestions for specific policy initiativesdesigned to achieve the work program objectives, with aparticular focus on the role health insurance can play tostabilize and improve service delivery, increase access toquality medicines and promote rational use. The overalllegal framework for the pharmaceutical sector is set by theFood and Drugs Law from 1992, amended by Act 523 in 1996. Itdefines the role of the food and drugs board as separateentity under control of the Ministry of Health (MOH),responsible for regulating the sector. The Food and DrugsBoard (FDB) also runs the official drug quality controllaboratory that is in charge of testing quality samplesobtained from manufacturers, importers, distributors orother sources. The FDB is also working on an improvement ofits public website in an effort to strengthen communicationwith the general public to increase transparency and improve governance.