Babar Zaheer-Ud-Din, Jamshed Shazia
School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Pharm World Sci. 2008 Oct;30(5):617-9. doi: 10.1007/s11096-008-9246-z. Epub 2008 Aug 7.
Pakistan has a population of more than 160 million and is the sixth most populous country in the world. Drugs are the most common form of treatment modality; however, inappropriate use of medicines is a crucial issue in the country. In Pakistan, recently there is a surge of number of pharmacy schools, the pharmacy degree (B. Pharm) has been changed to Pharm D and there is a lot of rhetoric about "clinical pharmacy". However, whether this change has brought any significant improvement in drug use situation; it is still a moot question for academics and policy makers. Authors feel that before embarking upon on clinical pharmacy at an institutional level, it is important that basic pharmacy system should be in place. Thus, a strong culture in social pharmacy or pharmaceutical policy research will not only be helpful to establish clinical pharmacy practice, but it would also be supportive enough to provide manpower to the country's proposed drug regulatory authority.
巴基斯坦人口超过1.6亿，是世界第六人口大国。药物是最常见的治疗方式；然而，该国药物的不当使用是一个关键问题。在巴基斯坦，最近药学院数量激增，药学学位（药学学士）已改为药学博士，并且有很多关于“临床药学”的言辞。然而，这种变化是否给药物使用情况带来了任何显著改善；这对学者和政策制定者来说仍是一个有争议的问题。作者认为，在机构层面开展临床药学之前，重要的是要有基本的药学体系。因此，社会药学或药物政策研究方面的浓厚氛围不仅有助于建立临床药学实践，还将为该国拟建的药品监管机构提供足够的人力支持。
