ArticleJournal of the Royal Society of Medicine2023
Registration of essential medicines in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda: a retrospective analysis.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pharmaceutical regulatory harmonization in Africa: a scoping review of policy design, implementation approaches, and outcomes.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Pharmaceutical Market Analysis of Topical Semi-Solid Dosage Forms for Skin Disorders in Kazakhstan.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- An analysis of the registration of essential medicines in Namibia: a proxy measure of the availability of essential medicines.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2026Article
- Parkinson disease treatments on national essential medicines lists, African Region.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2025Article
- Kenya's 2010 abortion law impacts contraceptive use and fertility rates.Reproductive health · 2025Article
- Research on the impact of traditional Chinese medicine registration innovation-oriented policies and enterprises performance: an empirical analysis based on listed enterprises in China.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Quantitative analysis of new drug registration policies for traditional Chinese medicine using the PMC index model.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Establishing links between drug registers and essential medicines lists.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2025Article
- Access to Medicines for Parkinson's Disease in Kenya: A Qualitative Exploration.Movement disorders clinical practice · 2024Article
- Rigour and science in drug regulatory approval.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2023Article
- Essential medicines concept and health technology assessment approaches to prioritising medicines: selection versus incorporation.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
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Abstract
objectivesTo audit national drug registers (NDRs) in Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda with respect to national Essential Medicine Lists (EMLs) and to conduct an analysis of highly registered products including a sub-analysis of highly registered antimicrobial products.
designRetrospective analysis of registration of essential medicines and medicinal products on NDRs as of February 2018.
settingNot applicable.
participantsNone.
main outcome measuresRegistration status of essential medicines by country, essential medicine status of registered products by country and medicines with more than 50 registrations across all three countries.
resultsA high proportion of essential medicines are not registered: Kenya 28% (175/632), United Republic of Tanzania 50% (400/797) and Uganda 40% (266/663). Of registered products on the NDRs, more than half are not essential: Kenya 71% (4350/6151), United Republic of Tanzania 64% (2278/3590) and Uganda 58% (2268/3896). When the three NDRs were combined, there were 42 medicines with over 50 registered products, accounting for 30% (4153/13637) of products, many of which were non-essential.
conclusionsNon-registration of essential medicines is a barrier to availability. Over-registration of medicines, particularly non-essential medicines, diverts regulatory resources towards registering non-priority and, sometimes, clinically sub-optimal medicines. The East African Community Medicines Registration Harmonization Project has the potential to improve access to key medicines if registration of essential medicines is prioritised and registration of non-essential medicines is restricted.
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