Bitter Pills:Medicines & The Third World Poor | Page 182

project, which is co-ordinated by Professor D'Arcy, Head of the Pharmacy
Department at Queen's University, in Northern Ireland. The first objective was
to discover the key problems that lend themselves to technical solutions. FIP
members would then offer their services to Third World health authorities as
consultants on pharmacy training, drug storage and transportation and technical
aspects of setting up local production. FIP planned to make specific
recommendations to WHO based on the information gathered from the national
pharmaceutical associations in various Third World countries. But Professor D'Arcy
believes that in addition to the technical problems, "FIP must also tackle the
problems/rom home by setting up a more active dialogue with the industry on the
special needs of the Third WorldI". (77) (our emphasis)
A number of European and American non-governmental medical groups have acted
tofillthe vacuum created by the lack of objective information on the safety and efficacy
of new and existing drugs. In Britain, the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, edited by
Dr. Andrew Herxheimer and written by general practitioners and specialists, discusses
appropriate treatments and reviews manufacturers' claims for their products. The
bulletin was started in 1963 and initially sent to doctors on a subscription basis. Since
1980, the Government has paid for it to be distributed to all doctors in Britain. The
UK Consumers Association, which publishes the bulletin, also offers free subscriptions
to Third World health officials and prescribers.(78)
A number of professional groups and individual doctors both in developed and
developing countries have produced reports highlighting abuses in drug marketing
and use in the Third World. The intention behind these studies has been to inform
professional and public opinion and encourage positive corrective from
governments and drug manufacturers. (79)
A recent example of the growing alarm shared by scientists and health professionals
at the worldwide misuse of drugs is the "Statement Regarding Worldwide
Antibiotic Misuse" issued by participants attending a conference on bacteriology
in the Dominican Republic in 1981. The signatories, mainly from the developed
but also from developing countries, set up the Alliance for the Prudent Use of
Antibiotics (APUA). As a first step they intend to press for national and
internatio