Department of Essential Drugs and Medicines

Aims to support countries in developing national drug policies, to work towards the rational use of drugs.

The new book How to develop and implement a national drug policy is now available as an official WHO publication. This replaces the Guidelines for developing national drug policies of 1988. The timing of this book may be quite significant for South Africa, since Dr Humphrey Zokufa indicated that the process of revising the South African National Drug Policy must start this year, at his address to the annual conference of the SA Association of Hospital and Instutional Pharmacists (1 Mar 2002). A national drug policy provides an invaluable strategic framework to identify national goals and commitments. This publication guides the reader through the development process of a national drug policy, and discusses key policy components like the selection of essential drugs, affordability, finance and supply, regulation and quality assurance, rational use, research, human resources, monitoring and evaluation. Each chapter presents useful practical advice and lists many references to other sources of more detailed technical information. ISBN 92 4 154547 X 83 pages price $23.40 ; 30% reduction for developing countries Copies can be ordered from the WHO Department of Marketing and Dissemination, e-mail bookorders@who.int Single copies of the book are available free of charge to experts from developing countries, from the Documentation Centre of the WHO Department of Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy, e-mail edmdoccentre@who.int The book is also posted on the EDM web site http://www.who.int/medicines. [Sources: E-drug, SAAHIP Conference www.saahip.org.za] The existing NDP is available from the DoH web site http://www.doh.gov.za/docs/policy/drugsjan1996.pdf or in HTML from http://www.sadap.org.za/ndp/