Hartog R
Soc Sci Med. 1993 Oct;37(7):897-904. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(93)90144-s.
This study estimates the proportion of essential drugs out of all drugs offered for sale in six regions of the developing world by the 20 largest European pharmaceutical companies. The total number of drugs offered for sale by the 20 companies is estimated from citations in the most important drug compendia in each region for 1988 and 1989. Essential drugs are defined as drugs listed on the 1988 version of the World Health Organization's (WHO) essential drugs list or equivalent to WHO essential drugs. Only 482, or 16% of a total of 3021 cited drugs were essential drugs or equivalent to an essential drug. The proportion for each company ranged from a low of 5.4% to a maximum of 39.0%. A high proportion, 41.7%, of the 2539 non-essential drugs cited in the compendia contained two or more active ingredients, compared to only 9.5% of the essential drugs. The results indicate that European pharmaceutical companies have yet to focus their drug marketing efforts in developing countries on the essential drugs recommended by the WHO. The ethical responsibility of the pharmaceutical companies is discussed, particularly in respect to their sales on the private market.
本研究估算了欧洲最大的20家制药公司在发展中世界六个地区所售全部药品中基本药物的比例。这20家公司所售药品的总数是根据1988年和1989年各地区最重要的药品手册中的引用数据估算得出的。基本药物被定义为列入1988年版世界卫生组织（WHO）基本药物清单或等同于WHO基本药物的药品。在所引用的总共3021种药物中，只有482种（即16%）是基本药物或等同于基本药物。每家公司的这一比例从低至5.4%到最高39.0%不等。手册中引用的2539种非基本药物中有很大比例（41.7%）含有两种或更多活性成分，而基本药物中这一比例仅为9.5%。结果表明，欧洲制药公司尚未将其在发展中国家的药品营销努力集中于WHO推荐的基本药物上。文中讨论了制药公司的道德责任，特别是在其在私人市场销售方面的责任。
