Pharmacists' awareness of drug counterfeiting in Jordan

Abstract EN

Objective : the purpose of the study is to identify the pharmacist's awareness and the contributing factors of drug counterfeiting in Jordan.

Method : the study used a descriptive cross-sectional design.

Study participants included a convenience sample of 100 Jordanian pharmacists who worked in three different fields of pharmacy including community, industrial and quality control in Amman.

The data were collected by a self-report questionnaire which was developed by the authors and was composed of open and closed ended questions.

The validity of questionnaire was assessed by experts in the field of the pharmacy working in the Jordan Food and Drug Administration with no modification and it was piloted and tested on four pharmacists.

The response rate was 62 %.

The data were analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences.

Results : the results showed that around 76 % reported high awareness of drug counterfeiting problem and the current laws and regulations in Jordan and 54.8 % perceived the regulations are extensive enough.

The majority (63 %) of the respondents did not come across any case of counterfeiting themselves, while 37 % had come across counterfeit cases and 50 % of them had come across several cases.

About half (51 %) of the respondents thought that drug counterfeiting is not a serious problem while 48.4 % thought it is a very serious problem.

In addition to that, 54.8 % thought that it is difficult to invade the Jordanian market with counterfeit drugs while 35.5 % think that Jordan could be invaded easily.

Conclusions : this study supports that drug counterfeiting is a major health problem and has a major impact worldwide on public, pharmaceutical companies as well as governments.

It also emphasizes that more statistical databases and national research on the percentage of drug counterfeiting in Jordan are needed to analyze and facilitate monitoring the size of problem.