Assessment of quality assurance capability for medicines in community pharmacies in two cities in Nigeria
Omoniyi J. Ola-Olorun and Akeem A. Tijani
Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Administration, Faculty of Pharmacy, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Osun State. Nigeria.
Corresponding author: Omoniyi J. Ola-Olorun
Email: niyiolaolorun@gmail.com Phone: +2348034119314
ABSTRACT
Background: Medicine quality is a global concern and lack of reliable quality assurance (QA) system for medicines may be contributory to the high level of spurious medicines in many developing countries.
Objectives: The study evaluated the level of institutionalization of QA components for medicine inventory in community pharmacies in two cities of Osun State in Nigeria as a measure of QA capability and explored for factors influencing QA capability.
Methods: A set of pretested semi-structured questionnaire was administered to community pharmacists practicing in Oshogbo and Ile-Ife. The instrument sought information on the level of institutionalization of essential components of QA, and explored for factors influencing QA, both on ordinal scales with weighting scores of 1-5 and 0-4 respectively. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. Chi square, Spearman’s rank correlation as well as multiple and ordinal regressions were used to evaluate the respondents’ opinions at 5% level of significance.
Results: Only two (12.5%) of the essential components of QA had been implemented (WA≈ 4) and none institutionalised (WA≈ 5). The three most prominent factors influencing QA capability were management commitment, suppliers and government regulatory control all with median score of 4.
Conclusion: Quality assurance capability for medicine inventory in the community pharmacies was low.
Key words: Medicine quality, counterfeit medicine, quality assurance, quality assurance capability, community pharmacy.