Study shows problems with relevance and freshness of donated drugs

A WHO study, the results of which were published on Monday, has shown that a substantial proportion of drugs donated to Tanzania and other developing countries by the United States fail to meet local medical needs or have a short shelf life. A study by the Harvard School of Public Health in the US collected data on 16,566 pharmaceuticals shipped to Armenia, Haiti and Tanzania by two relief agencies between 1994 and 1997. About 30 percent of the drugs had a shelf-life of a year or less and six percent had less than 100 days, the study concluded.

Between 10 and 42 percent of the donated drugs were not listed as essential by the recipient country or the WHO Model List of Essential Drugs, nor were they permissible therapeutic alternatives. According to the WHO bulletin, donated drugs also arrived unsorted and inappropriately labelled, and their quality did not always comply with standards in donor countries. On occasion, the drugs also had a high declared value, based on their market value in the donor country, leading to high customs charges for recipients, the report added.