Tracing pharmaceuticals in South Asia: regulation, distribution and consumption
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Social and Political Science
Abstract
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Publications
Abhijit Das (Author)
(2009)
Pharmaceuticals, physicians and public policy : unravelling the relationships
in Journal of health studies
Barnard, Alan; Spencer, Jonathan
(2009)
The Routledge Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Brhlikova P
(2011)
Global Burden of Disease estimates of depression--how reliable is the epidemiological evidence?
in Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
Brhlikova P
(2011)
Trust and the regulation of pharmaceuticals: South Asia in a globalised world.
in Globalization and health
Ecks S
(2008)
Global Pharmaceutical Markets and Corporate Citizenship: The Case of Novartis' Anti-cancer Drug Glivec
in BioSocieties
Ecks S
(2009)
The unlicensed lives of antidepressants in India: generic drugs, unqualified practitioners, and floating prescriptions.
in Transcultural psychiatry
Ecks S.
(2010)
Asian Biotech: Ethics and Communities of Fate
Harper I
(2010)
Extreme condition, extreme measures? Compliance, drug resistance, and the control of tuberculosis.
in Anthropology & medicine
Ian Harper (Author)
(2009)
National tuberculosis control programmes of Nepal and India : are they using the correct treatment regimens?
in Journal of health studies
| Description | Our research produced new insights into how excessive antibiotic prescribing in South Asia resulted from the fear of harm to reputations if antibiotics were not prescribed; clinical uncertainty, and the delay, absence or cost of taking diagnostic options led to rapid clinical diagnoses followed by prescriptions, often within a few minutes. Pharmaceutical companies encouraged such an approach by offering incentives for high levels of prescriptions. Practitioners unqualified in 'Western' medicine often did not know the appropriate treatment regimes - but in many cases, nor do those with an MB BS. At the household level, antibiotics may be stored, shared with others, purchased without prescriptions or medical advice, and taken in sub-therapeutic doses: prescriptions 'float' beyond the person to whom they were first issued. There is a possible role of sub-standard, counterfeit and fake/falsified products (but these are unknown and much-exaggerated in scale with respect to South Asia) |
| Exploitation Route | It was taken forward in a further project funded by EU FP7 programme: Accessing Medicines in Africa and South Asia (AMASA) Grant agreement ID: 242262. |
| Sectors | Healthcare |
| Description | Discussed in debates over the appropriate use of medicines, especially of oxytocin or misoprostol in childbirth, to reduce post-partum haemorrhage; and in debates over responses to the rise of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
| Sector | Healthcare |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |