Dumping of Low Quality Drugs Affects Nepal Medicine Market

Dumping of low quality drugs affects Nepal medicine market

KATHMANDU, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) — The growing trend of dumping low grade medicines in recent years has emerged as the most serious problem to the domestic medicine market of Nepal, a leading Nepali pharmaceutical entrepreneur said here Thursday.

“We have expressed serious concern over the Nepali government’s negligence towards the problem,” Hari Bhakta Sharma, executive director of Deurali-Janta Pharmaceutical, a private company that produces life-saving medicines, told reporters.

“In a small market like Nepal, more than 250 domestic and foreign companies are pumping their 12,000 products,” Sharma said, adding, “How can we expect quality medicines in the market when overall quality checking capacity of the government’s agency entrusted for the job is around 1,000 per year?”

Lack of brand awareness among the drugs users is also providing a favorable environment for the low quality medicines to penetrate into the domestic market, Sharma said.

The frequent obstruction in the distribution of essential medicines in the rural areas due to the conflict has also squeezed the access of quality medicines among the rural masses, Sharma noted.

“High priority given for imported medicines over crowded market, inadequate regulatory mechanism and technological gap are the major problems of the domestic pharmaceutical industries,” he added.