The Gambia National Medicines Policy 2022-2025.

This Gambia National Medicines Policy provides for ensuring the quality and availability of all medicines and health products authorised in The Gambia throughout the pharmaceutical chain, including registration, local manufacturing, importation, reception, storage, distribution, rational use, and pharmacovigilance, in order to achieve the highest possible health standards for the Gambian population, and to promote a holistic vision of access to quality medicines, taking into account gender equality and equitable access to health care for the different categories of the population, especially the most vulnerable. Further objectives are: providing a comprehensive legislative and regulatory framework that allows for the protection and promotion of health by ensuring compliance of pharmaceutical products, personnel, premises and practices with the relevant legislation; creating a sustainable financing mechanism that ensures availability and equitable access to adequate quantities of the required essential medicines; ensuring that medicines are used in a manner that promotes maximum therapeutic benefit through continuous education and health promotion; strengthening the human resource capacity in the pharmaceutical sector; enhancing research capacity at all levels; establishing a robust pharmaceuticals management system that ensures availability and accessibility of information on pharmaceuticals and promotes the utilisation of such information for higher decision making; encouraging local production of medicines and pharmaceutical products.
The Policy concerns: organisation of the health sector; functions of national pharmaceutical services and of the medicines control agency, including: issuance and revocation of certificates, licenses or permits, definition of standards of quality in respect of products. The Policy is inspired and based on the following principles: right to health; right of access to quality medicines and health technologies; ethic and standards; gender equality; cultural identity and recognition of the importance of local values and traditions, and use of traditional structures; climate change and green growth; public and private partnership; good governance and accountability; One Health approach, in order to improve collaboration between the human health, animal health, agriculture, and environment sectors to optimise the fight against antimicrobial resistance. The Policy also focuses on various transformative actions for improving pharmaceutical system, including: drugs and medicines selection; inspection of products; stock management and inventory control; waste management; traditional medicines; pandemic health and emergency crisis management; green and climate smart pharmaceutical practices; community participation and civil society involvement.