Transcript Oral Presentation 1

Pharmacists Perceptions of the
Development of Herbal
Medicines in Iran
Asghari G.
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, I.R.Iran
 Objectives
 Identify pharmacists overall
assessments of the WHO-TRM
Strategy components influencing
the development of herbal medicine
market in Iran.
 In Iran, although the sale of herbal
medicine is growing, at present its
share in the drug market is <5%.
Methods:elements assessed
 Access: affordibility, supply, distrubution,
market expansion, health insurance coverage,
price
 Rational use: provider training, consumer
information, public information, commercial
advertizing, student education
 Safety, efficacy, quailty: pharmacovigilance,
packeging and lebelling, quality assurance,
clinical trial, new dosage form
 Regulation: registration , integration to NHS,
legal consideration, licensing, auditing
Questionnaire used
The 20 questions consisted of 5 items
addressing safety, efficacy, and quality of
herbal medicines, 5 items about the rational
use, 5 items about the access to herbal
medicines, and 5 items about regulation.
 A five – point Likert rating scale was used for
the final 20-item with choices strongly agree,
agree, somewhat agree, disagree, and strongly
disagree.
Subjects
 72 community retail pharmacists
practicing in Isfahan city in private
pharmacy were participate to complete
the survey. Data were collected by selfadministered questionnaire.
 After their continuing education course,
pharmacists were asked to complete a
written survey evaluating elements that
can influence the development of herbal
medicine in Iran .
Comparison of pharmacists perceptions of elements
influencing herbal medicine market in Iran
3.85
Mean of pharmacists
perceptions
3.8
3.75
3.7
3.65
This is where a large graphic or chart can go.
3.6
3.55
3.5
Access
Regulation
Rational use
Elements assessed
Safety, eficacy,
quaility
Results:
 In the safety, efficacy and quality section, there
were significant differences between efficacy
and others. The results showed that
pharmacists believe poor efficacy in herbal
product negatively influence their market.
 There was a significant difference in access
section between cost and availability.
 The results demonstrated that the pharmacist
perceptions of development of herbal
medicines vary from access and regulation
items to safety, efficacy, quality and rational
use items.
Conclusion :
 Since this data were collected to assess
the perception of specific city
pharmacist, they may not necessarily
show the reality and may not nationally
applicable or acceptable.
 Iran health system needs to evaluate
their herbal medicine market by various
methods in order to promote their herbal
medicine market to meet health care
demands.
Challenging methodological
issues:
 Reliability and validity in the collection
of data:
 pretest group, clarity, wording,
representative
 use of questionnaires in multi cultural
society, (questions of quality, rational
use, safety are strongly determined by
the cultural context.)
 Complexity of the herbal medicines use:
 Influence of social factors, cultural
factors, definition of health ( herbal
medicine is the best solution)
 Limitation: what people think or what
they are willing to report is not
necessarily the same as what actually
happens.
Question should be included
in future research:
 Public Demand
 Marketing mechanisms
 Level and distribution of wealth in the
country
 Affordability of professional care
 Affordability of traditional herbal
materials
 Free access to formal medical care
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Number of pharmacies
number of traditional healer
availability of professional care
Availability of drug
Availability of traditional market
Behavioral factors:
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pharmacist dispensing behavior
patient compliance
illness behavior
attitude of health professionals
attitude to health
Cultural values: