Learning How Drug Companies Promote Medicines in Nepal

August 2005 | Volume 2 | Issue 8 | e256 Armed with the power to prescribe, doctors are in a position to fl ood their patients’ bodies with potent medicines at a stroke of their pen—and they have been consistently wooed by the pharmaceutical industry. Doctors in Nepal have started to become targets for the pharmaceutical industry’s promotional activities. The mountainous, landlocked, developing country of Nepal, which has a population of about 23 million, has an annual per capita income, in terms of purchasing power parity, of about US$2,000 in urban areas and US$1,000 in rural areas. In Nepal, Western allopathic medicine coexists with traditional medical practices like Ayurveda, Tibetan medicine, and faith healing. Many rural areas lack access to modern health care, but Kathmandu and other cities are becoming booming markets for pharmaceuticals.