Distribution and access to medicines: role of the pharmacist monopoly

Carine Baxerres (), A.C. Kpatchavi and D.K. Arhinful
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Carine Baxerres: MERIT - UMR_D 261 - Mère et enfant en milieu tropical : pathogènes, système de santé et transition épidémiologique - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - UPCité - Université Paris Cité

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Abstract: The States of the world, whether in the "North" or the "South", use a variety of mechanisms to regulate pharmaceutical distribution. These mechanisms are built around the issue of the pharmacist's monopoly, granted by the State, and the scope of this monopoly, which varies by country. Through this chapter, we examine this monopoly and the consequences of the different ways it is applied to retail and wholesale distribution in Benin and Ghana as a result of the institutional and legal legacies of their former colonial powers: existence of a large informal market in Benin, sale of therapeutic classes exceeding those authorized in drugstores in Ghana, wide distribution by wholesalers in Ghana including to unauthorized buyers. The need to dissect the different applications (professional, dispensing, ownership) of this monopoly will appear, as will the need to consider the tensions between profession and capital, between public health and trade. These reflections will finally be discussed in relation to the changes currently underway in terms of pharmaceutical policies in West Africa.

Keywords: BENIN; GHANA; FRANCE (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Published in Baxerres, Carine (ed.); Cassier, M. (ed.). Understanding drugs markets : an analysis of medicines, regulations and pharmaceutical systems in the Global South, Routledge, pp.72-93, 2021, Routledge Studies in the Sociology of Health and Illness, 978-1-032-04313-5. ⟨10.4324/9780429329517-3⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03673375

DOI: 10.4324/9780429329517-3

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