ArticleClinicoEconomics and outcomes research : CEOR2023
Challenges to the Availability and Affordability of Essential Medicines in African Countries: A Scoping Review.
Article in ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research : CEOR, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 103 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
103 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pain, policy, and the opioid dilemma in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review of access, regulation, and health governance from 1990 to 2024.Health policy and planning · 2026Pooled it
- Burden and Challenges of Managing Hypertension in People Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Mixed Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of public health · 2025Pooled it
- Potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) in older people and its association with socioeconomic deprivation-a systematic review and narrative synthesis.BMC geriatrics · 2024Pooled it
- Psychometric evaluation of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index among South African women participating in the Bukhali trial: Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative.Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine · 2026Trial
- Systemic challenges in the supply and distribution of medicines in conflict-affected areas of Mali: a qualitative study.Global health action · 2026Article
- Neuropsychiatry genetics in Africa.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Cardiovascular innovation without equity risks widening global gaps.MedScience · 2026Article
- Burden of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease attributable to high body mass index, high fasting plasma glucose or high low density lipoprotein cholesterol in young and middle-aged adults from 1990 to 2050.Diabetology & metabolic syndrome · 2026Article
- Measured and perceived affordability of asthma medications and their associations with medication adherence among adult patients in Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Article
- The Role of Research, Quality Improvement, and Training in Achieving Medicines Security in Nigeria: A Cross-Sectional Exploration of Stakeholders' Perspectives.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Satisfaction with clinical practice environments among early-career health professionals in South Africa: findings from the WiSDOM cohort study.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2026Article
- Implications of global health funding patterns for implementation of a novel soil-transmitted helminth and lymphatic filariasis medicine: Ivermectin/albendazole fixed-dose combination.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Review
- Effectiveness of a village emergency care model: a pilot intervention in rural Tanzania.Emergency medicine journal : EMJ · 2026Article
- Pharmaceutical import landscape in Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study of importers' perspectives on business and regulatory challenges.Tropical medicine and health · 2026Article
- Medicines governance and systemic constraints: A qualitative study among healthcare professionals in South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2026Article
- Living with type 2 diabetes: stress and daily life challenges among adults in the Ashanti Region, Ghana.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Family traditions, accessibility and cost shape the continued reliance on Cajanus cajan and Azadirachta indica for malaria and typhoid despite prescription medicines in urban and rural Nsukka, Nigeria.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2026Article
- Challenges and best practices in essential medicines supply and use in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps: A qualitative study.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Article
- Pharmacy student's awareness, perceptions, and supportive environment as determinants of their intent to pursue postgraduate education in pharmaceutical marketing: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Actionable Pharmacogenomics and Essential Medicines: An Analysis of WHO and African Lists for Safer and Efficacious Drug Use.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2026Review
43 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: The availability and affordability of safe, effective, accessible, and high-quality essential medicines is a critical benchmark for achieving the right to good health, and it is also one of the goals of the global health development agenda. To that end, it is critical to conduct rigorous studies to identify the major challenges confronting developing countries, particularly those in Africa. Objective: The purpose of this review was to identify the major challenges that Africans face in obtaining reasonably priced and readily available essential medicines. Methods: Generally the Boolean operators "AND" and "OR" were employed. Making progress also involves using duplicate checks, field definitions, and comparisons of articles and criteria. The analysis included all English-language papers published in any African country between 2005 and 2022, depending on the year of publication. The technique searches electronic databases for key phrases related to essential medication availability and affordability, such as PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Science Direct, Plos Medicine, and Google Scholar. Results: A total of 91 articles; by using search engines and handpicking including duplicates, were primarily searched. The electronic database search earned 78 articles while only eleven studies met the criteria for review and were reviewed of which 5 (50%) were from East African countries. Inadequate human resources, financial constraints, high cost of available medications on the market, poor inventory management, manual consumption forecasting, inefficiencies in drug registration, and trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights agreement regulations are all obstacles to the availability of essential medicines in African nations. Conclusion: This review revealed that in Africa, the availability and affordability of essential medicines face numerous challenges. The primary challenge, according to the review research, is a lack of adequate financing to pay for an appropriate set of essential medications, which account for a significant portion of household spending.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.