Governments should ensure that access to medicines and medical devices is always accompanied by access to pharmacists and pharmaceutical expertise, FIP says in a statement of policy, published today.

With this statement, FIP makes a number of recommendations for how different groups of stakeholders can improve access to safe and quality essential medicines. For example, policymakers should make legislative changes to enable pharmacists to provide substitutes when a prescribed medicine is not available.

In particular, the policy highlights a significant difference in medicines access between low- and high-income countries, with disparities in the structure of healthcare systems and the numbers and roles of pharmacists and pharmacies being among the contributing causes.