E-DRUG: Nutrition in health care, any role for pharmacists? (2)
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Dear Rebecca,
My experience as a pharmacist in the area of nutrition comes from many years of
participating in new product development, technical evaluation and procurement
of nutrition products for public health programmes. I can share with you the
following:
1. Nutritionists are seldom agreed on exact product standards, partly because
evidence is often shaky, shifting, or even controversial. You may wish, for
example, to explore what the current expert thinking is on the role on
nutrition products in HIV/AIDS, or that of iron supplementation in malaria
endemic parts of the world.
2. Regulatory requirements vary widely from country to country. So, one often
faces a situation in which country A may classify a product as a "nutritional
product" whereas country B may classify it as a "pharmaceutical". The use of
the term "nutraceutical" pops up from time to time. This creates a dilemma for
the Pharmacist evaluating procurement bids.
3. Reliable stability data for nutrition products are hard to come by, making
one wonder how product shelf Lives of the numerous nutrition products in
circulation are assigned.
4. Most Nutritionists I have come across have a good knowledge of the clinical
role of the nutrient/micronutrient, but little understanding of the active
agent delivery options in terms of dosage forms. This is one important area
where pharmacists can work together with nutritionists. This collaboration,
however, should start up stream of clinical evidence gathering.
5. Lastly, I think the number of products on offer as nutrition for health
care is so overwhelming that it becomes quite a challenge to decide which
product to invest resources in.
Best wishes in your work,
Murtada M. Sesay
Senior Pharmaceutical Product/Supply Chain Officer
UNOPS India Procurement Office
11, Golf Links
New Delhi - 110.003
India
Tel.: +91 11 3041 7430 (Direct), +91 11 3041 7430 (switchboard)
Fax: +91 11 4350 8527
Email: Murtadas@unops.org
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