Health in the People's Republic of China

The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) is the global federation of national organisations of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists dedicated to improving the access to and value of appropriate medicine use, and contributing to changes in science, practice and health policies worldwide.

In a surprise move yesterday, Parliaments health committee scrapped a controversial Medicines and Related Substances Amendment Bill clause which gave the health minister the final say on whether new medicines could be sold in SA.

An independent report which has just been released has revealed that the average cost of medicines has dropped by just over 8% in South Africa since December 2004.

The reduction of chronic disease is not a Millennium Development Goal (MDG). While the political fashions have embraced some diseasesHIV-AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, in particularmany other common conditions remain marginal to the mainstream of global action on health. Chronic diseases are among these neglected conditions.

At the end of August the first phase of PharMIS (Pharmaceutical Management Information System) was launched by the Department of Health - Pharmaceutical Policy and Planning Cluster, supported by the EQUITY project. Expenditure on pharmaceuticals in provincial health departments is exceeded only by personnel expenditure, and up till now data about pharmaceuticals has been fragmented, incompatible and inaccessible for analysis and management. The system currently provides a datawarehouse of drug supply management information from most of the provincial depots, and a web interface to reports from this data. More information from pharmis.pwv.gov.za