Assessing Good Pharmacy Practices in Private Medicine Shops in selected Districts of Bangladesh, a study undertaken by the Better Health in Bangladesh (BHB) project and supported by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), was completed. The researcher presented the final report in a formal event held online on January 24, 2023. Major General Dr Mohammad Yusuf, the Director General of Drug Administration, presided over the event attended by Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) officials and representatives from Pharmacy Council of Bangladesh (PCB), FCDO, academia, and other stakeholders. The researcher submitted the final report to BHB on January 31, 2023.
To improve pharmacy practices in Bangladesh, BHB provides technical assistance to DGDA and PCB to train medicine dispensers on Good Pharmacy Practices (GPP) and helps them adopt GPP with the expectation that by 2022, at least 25% of them will be adhering to at least three of seven key GPPs. In this study, 252 medicine shops from different regions of Bangladesh were randomly selected, and data were collected using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The results show that about 90% of the medicine shops adhere to at least 3 of 7 GPPs with an average score of 62% if all 7 GPPs are considered. Specific results included the following:
- More than two-thirds of medicine shops sold antibiotics without a valid prescription
- 94% of the medicine shops maintained antibiotic registers
- 90% of the medicine shops separated, stored, and disposed of expired medicines properly and maintained an expired medicine register
- Half sold temperature-sensitive medicines (vaccines, insulin, etc.), and of those, 98% adequately maintained a cold chain
- Dispensers in 56% medicine shops counselled patients while they dispensed medicines
- 41% labelled medicines with dosing and timing information
- 94% had saved supplier invoices for the minimum of two years
