Opininons of the pharmacist who work in the province of Ankara on the problems faced in procurement of medicines: Questionnaire study

The sector of pharmaceutical is growing rapidly in Turkey, having the 16th biggest drug market in the world with its annual sales volume over twenty billion Turkish Liras. The sector of pharmaceutical, having a big market for our country, should be well-managed in all aspects. It was aimed to detect the opinions of the 73 freelance pharmacists working at pharmacies and 5 pharmacists working at different pharmacy warehouses throughout the province of Ankara. Although both freelance pharmacists and the pharmacists who work at pharmacy warehouses agreed that there were problems with the medicines procured from abroad, their evaluations on the procurement of prescription medicines differed. Among the freelance pharmacists working at pharmacies, 67.1% reported that problems are faced in the procurement of the prescribed medicines and 30.1% reported that problems are faced in the procurement of the imported medicines; while 100% of the pharmacists working at pharmacy warehouses reported that problems are faced in the procurement of the imported medicines. The majority of the pharmacists working at pharmacies (80%) described the frequency of having problems in the procurement of prescribed medicine as "sometimes" and it was reported that the reasons for inability to procure medicines are 76.7% non-availability of the medicine at the depot and 23.3% being taken off the market by the manufacturer companies. The pharmacists working at pharmacy warehouses thought that the reasons for the inability to procure medicines are 40% termination of the agreement between the company and pharmacy warehouse and 60% non-availability of equivalent medicine. 37% of the pharmacies stated that the demand of patients for monitoring medicines and then being informed was high, 37% stated it was low, while 26% stated it never occurs. However, it was detected that the rate of the pharmacists who monitor the difficult-to-procure medicines specifically and inform their patients about it for a long time was 31.5%, while the rate of those who just started such follow-up was 5.5%. In this study, it was seen that the fundamental problem regarding the delivery of medicine to patients is associated with the orphan medicines procured from abroad and used for the treatment of rare diseases. Considering that a rare disease is found in 5-6 million people in Turkey, it can be suggested that procurement of orphan medicine is an important health problem for Turkey. The pharmaceutical industry of Turkey has the technology to manufacture nearly all medicines. However, Turkey is a medicine importer, only 43% of the need is met with domestic production. Further, approximately 80% of the raw materials used for medicine manufacture is imported. Actions related to developing and supporting the medicine industry in Turkey will be effective in solving this or reducing problem in the medium and long terms. In, addition, an increase in the domestic medicine production will facilitate the procurement of prescription medicines reducing the effect of exchange rate fluctuations. It seems that it might be a solution that can be effective in the short term if pharmacists monitor the medicines of the patients and their stock status by means of a special monitoring system, and then inform the patients in respect to these. Keywords: Pharmaceutical logistics, pharmacist, pharmacy warehouse, orphan medicine