Study on Drug Selling Pattern in Bangladesh

Abstract

In Bangladesh tendency of the mass people to buy medicines without proper prescription. Undoubtedly this is not a healthy practice to adopt. Government published the "Essential Drug List" or "EDL" in 1982 along with the National Drug Policy (NDP). The NDP stated that no medicine of any kind can be manufactured for sale or be imported, distributed or sold unless it is registered with the licensing authority; and no person, being a retailer, is allowed to sell any drug without the personal supervision of a pharmacist registered in any Register of the Pharmacy Council of Bangladesh. Despite substantial progress in drug manufacturing, irrational drug use, inappropriate prescribing, inadequate access to essential drugs, and uncontrolled price are major problems affecting the total health care system badly in Bangladesh. One can get any drugs from anywhere. So in real sense, there is still no 'Prescription Only Drug' in Bangladesh at present. Drug selling pattern is a powerful indicator of rational use of drugs. To find out the picture of Drug Selling Pattern in Bangladesh, a survey program was conducted in three areas namely Dinajpur, Nator and Nowakhali. In case of conducting the program, urban and rural both areas were considered to perform the study. Firstly, the data was collected from those areas with the help of a prepared sample collection form and, then the analysis of the data and finding out the subjected outcomes. The main objective of the study was to improve the drug selling pattern and enhance the rational use of drug to ensure the proper public health.