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When technology precedes regulation: the challenges and opportunities of e-pharmacy in low-income and middle-income countries

The recent growth of medicine sales online represents a major disruption to pharmacy markets, with COVID-19 encouraging this trend further. While e-pharmacy businesses were initially the preserve of high-income countries, in the past decade they have been growing rapidly in low-income and middle-inc...

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Autores principales: Miller, Rosalind, Wafula, Francis, Onoka, Chima A, Saligram, Prasanna, Musiega, Anita, Ogira, Dosila, Okpani, Ikedichi, Ejughemre, Ufuoma, Murthy, Shrutika, Garimella, Surekha, Sanderson, Marie, Ettelt, Stefanie, Allen, Pauline, Nambiar, Devaki, Salam, Abdul, Kweyu, Emmanuel, Hanson, Kara, Goodman, Catherine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8141442/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34016578
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005405
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author Miller, Rosalind
Wafula, Francis
Onoka, Chima A
Saligram, Prasanna
Musiega, Anita
Ogira, Dosila
Okpani, Ikedichi
Ejughemre, Ufuoma
Murthy, Shrutika
Garimella, Surekha
Sanderson, Marie
Ettelt, Stefanie
Allen, Pauline
Nambiar, Devaki
Salam, Abdul
Kweyu, Emmanuel
Hanson, Kara
Goodman, Catherine
author_facet Miller, Rosalind
Wafula, Francis
Onoka, Chima A
Saligram, Prasanna
Musiega, Anita
Ogira, Dosila
Okpani, Ikedichi
Ejughemre, Ufuoma
Murthy, Shrutika
Garimella, Surekha
Sanderson, Marie
Ettelt, Stefanie
Allen, Pauline
Nambiar, Devaki
Salam, Abdul
Kweyu, Emmanuel
Hanson, Kara
Goodman, Catherine
author_sort Miller, Rosalind
collection PubMed
description The recent growth of medicine sales online represents a major disruption to pharmacy markets, with COVID-19 encouraging this trend further. While e-pharmacy businesses were initially the preserve of high-income countries, in the past decade they have been growing rapidly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Public health concerns associated with e-pharmacy include the sale of prescription-only medicines without a prescription and the sale of substandard and falsified medicines. There are also non-health-related risks such as consumer fraud and lack of data privacy. However, e-pharmacy may also have the potential to improve access to medicines. Drawing on existing literature and a set of key informant interviews in Kenya, Nigeria and India, we examine the e-pharmacy regulatory systems in LMICs. None of the study countries had yet enacted a regulatory framework specific to e-pharmacy. Key regulatory challenges included the lack of consensus on regulatory models, lack of regulatory capacity, regulating sales across borders and risks of over-regulation. However, e-pharmacy also presents opportunities to enhance medicine regulation—through consolidation in the sector, and the traceability and transparency that online records offer. The regulatory process needs to be adapted to keep pace with this dynamic landscape and exploit these possibilities. This will require exploration of a range of innovative regulatory options, collaboration with larger, more compliant businesses, and engagement with global regulatory bodies. A key first step must be ensuring that national regulators are equipped with the necessary awareness and technical expertise to actively oversee this e-pharmacy activity.
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spelling pubmed-81414422021-06-07 When technology precedes regulation: the challenges and opportunities of e-pharmacy in low-income and middle-income countries Miller, Rosalind Wafula, Francis Onoka, Chima A Saligram, Prasanna Musiega, Anita Ogira, Dosila Okpani, Ikedichi Ejughemre, Ufuoma Murthy, Shrutika Garimella, Surekha Sanderson, Marie Ettelt, Stefanie Allen, Pauline Nambiar, Devaki Salam, Abdul Kweyu, Emmanuel Hanson, Kara Goodman, Catherine BMJ Glob Health Analysis The recent growth of medicine sales online represents a major disruption to pharmacy markets, with COVID-19 encouraging this trend further. While e-pharmacy businesses were initially the preserve of high-income countries, in the past decade they have been growing rapidly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). Public health concerns associated with e-pharmacy include the sale of prescription-only medicines without a prescription and the sale of substandard and falsified medicines. There are also non-health-related risks such as consumer fraud and lack of data privacy. However, e-pharmacy may also have the potential to improve access to medicines. Drawing on existing literature and a set of key informant interviews in Kenya, Nigeria and India, we examine the e-pharmacy regulatory systems in LMICs. None of the study countries had yet enacted a regulatory framework specific to e-pharmacy. Key regulatory challenges included the lack of consensus on regulatory models, lack of regulatory capacity, regulating sales across borders and risks of over-regulation. However, e-pharmacy also presents opportunities to enhance medicine regulation—through consolidation in the sector, and the traceability and transparency that online records offer. The regulatory process needs to be adapted to keep pace with this dynamic landscape and exploit these possibilities. This will require exploration of a range of innovative regulatory options, collaboration with larger, more compliant businesses, and engagement with global regulatory bodies. A key first step must be ensuring that national regulators are equipped with the necessary awareness and technical expertise to actively oversee this e-pharmacy activity. BMJ Publishing Group 2021-05-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8141442/ /pubmed/34016578 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005405 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Analysis
Miller, Rosalind
Wafula, Francis
Onoka, Chima A
Saligram, Prasanna
Musiega, Anita
Ogira, Dosila
Okpani, Ikedichi
Ejughemre, Ufuoma
Murthy, Shrutika
Garimella, Surekha
Sanderson, Marie
Ettelt, Stefanie
Allen, Pauline
Nambiar, Devaki
Salam, Abdul
Kweyu, Emmanuel
Hanson, Kara
Goodman, Catherine
When technology precedes regulation: the challenges and opportunities of e-pharmacy in low-income and middle-income countries
title When technology precedes regulation: the challenges and opportunities of e-pharmacy in low-income and middle-income countries
title_full When technology precedes regulation: the challenges and opportunities of e-pharmacy in low-income and middle-income countries
title_fullStr When technology precedes regulation: the challenges and opportunities of e-pharmacy in low-income and middle-income countries
title_full_unstemmed When technology precedes regulation: the challenges and opportunities of e-pharmacy in low-income and middle-income countries
title_short When technology precedes regulation: the challenges and opportunities of e-pharmacy in low-income and middle-income countries
title_sort when technology precedes regulation: the challenges and opportunities of e-pharmacy in low-income and middle-income countries
topic Analysis
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8141442/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34016578
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-005405
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