A comprehensive review of the many complex factors that influence the current availability and consumption of pharmaceuticals throughout the world. The report, which draws upon data and statistics available for well over 100 industrialized and developing countries, emphasizes factors that can help gauge the extent to which drugs are performing an effective role in society and in health care. Conditions and trends in both the public and private sectors, at national and global levels, governing undermedication or overmedication, are identified and discussed in this unique survey of the world drug situation. The book has two main parts. Chapters in the first part analyse global trends in the consumption, production, trade, and sales of pharmaceuticals. Information ranges from data on the leading manufacturers and products, through statistics on changing per capita drug consumption by country and by region, to a discussion of the structure and dynamics of the pharmaceutical industry. The second part profiles the drug situation in individual countries. Using a set of 10 indicators, chapters provide a systematic assessment of national drug policies, essential drugs programmes, conditions of availability and consumption, and the extent of local production for 104 developing countries, grouped according to three different levels of coverage. Where appropriate, detailed discussions of the situation in individual countries are used to illustrate significant trends and identify problems faced by countries in specific situations. The book concludes with an overview of the drug situation in industrialized countries, including examples of measures introduced to control costs, improve the prescribing practices of medical personnel, and promote more rational drug use by the public.

eng fre.

WHODOC

WHO monograph

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