About 80% of all private health care expenditures in South Asia are on medicines and ill-health is an important reason why South Asians fall into poverty. Yet not enough is known about the processes through which pharmaceutical products and their patterns of use help or hinder efforts to meet the MDGs.

CHSJ in collaboration with SAHAYOG and the University of Edinburgh (along with Martin Chautari in Nepal) is working on a research project “Tracing pharmaceuticals in South Asia: regulation, distribution and consumption”. This research has been led by a research group at the University of Edinburgh, including members of the Centre for International Public Health Policy and the research network on the Sociology and Anthropology of Health and Illness. The study integrates anthropological, public health and political economic approaches and aims to find the reasons behind the misuse of drugs like oxytocin(inducing labour), rifampicin(treating TB) and fluoxetine(depression) that are vitally important from a public health perspective by tracing their journey from production to consumption. It is expected that this might assist the development of effective interventions to improve MDG and other health outcomes and thereby contribute to poverty-reduction strategies.

Following is the list of working papers produced under the research project.

1. WP1a - Pharmaceuticals Distribution Systems in India
2. WP1b - Drug Procurement in Nepal
3. WP2 - Qualitative Research on Fluoxetine and Oxytocin in India
4. WP3 - Good Manufacturing Practice in the Pharmaceutical Industry

This research project is funded by The Department for International Development (DFID) and The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) , UK. The research project is near completion. Dissemination workshops are scheduled in the month from April-June 2009 in Delhi, Kathmandu and Edinburgh.

Click here to access details of the dissemination workshop.