Toxi

• Divisions of pharmacists based on knowledge of illness, patients, and drugs comprise the essence of professional services offered to the self-caring public
• Trend toward self-medication places increased professional responsibility on pharmacists

  • Pharmacists must analyze each patient's condition and decide on minor illness referred to, for appropriate medication
• Total health care can be divided into two general categories:

  • Medical care, provided by physicians, dentists, and pharmacists in hospitals, industrial, and medical clinics
  • Self-care, where patients care for themselves
• Self-medication constitutes a significant and important component of self-care

  • Self-medication precludes guidance by a licensed pharmacist or physician
• Self-medicating patients are often self-diagnosing patients

  • Patients determine the nature of their problem, probable resolution with OTC drugs, and the product type they intend to use
• Self-medication and self-diagnosis are recognized alternative practices for medical care

  • Attributed to self-care, overall health status, economics of health care, and health care system
• In highly urbanized areas, people resort to self-care through self-diagnosis and self-medication without the aid of a physician

  • This attitude leads to a confident feeling of overall health status in individuals
• Self-medication through self-diagnosis as promoted by OTC drugs has left Filipino consumers with no other alternative but self-initiated and self-controlled application of skills for health promotion
• Pharmacists play a distinct role in assuring that self-medication achieves its greatest good and least possible harm through explanation, advice, and warning
• Advertising OTC drugs contributes to the overall public health by providing education on minor conditions and products for treatment, motivation for seeking treatment, and accessibility of these products
• There are definite risks of placing functions of advertising OTC drugs in the hands of manufacturers and the lay public with little or no control by health professionals

  • Risks include misleading educational components and exaggerated or erroneous product claims
• Findings on the correlations of the Filipino consumer's attitude towards common ailments and self-medication include:

  • Attitudes towards choice of OTC drugs based on different sources of information
  • Attitudes towards self-medication practices
  • Intention of buying OTC drugs
  • Frequency of buying OTC drugs
  • Percentage in buying OTC drugs
  • Places considered convenient for buying OTC drugs
  • Primary basis in buying OTC drugs
  • Self-medication practices on common ailments
• Pharmaceutical Marketing System revolves around large, medium, and small drug manufacturers and traders operating mostly in Metro Manila and nearby Luzon areas
• Pharmacists of yesteryears used to be behind prescription counters, merely compounding drugs and medicines
• Today, drugs and medicines come in fully prepared, compounded formats, different shapes and sizes, colors, attractive packaging and designs, and unique features and perceived value to end-users
• There are hundreds of brand names with the same generic specifications, hundreds of manufacturers and traders, thousands of drugstores, and hospital pharmacies nationwide
• Pharmaceutical Marketing in the Philippine setting has never been formally documented and taught in colleges, universities, and other institutions of learning
• Several drug companies employ Total Quality Management (TQM) and Total Quality Leadership (TQL) to espouse the highest quality standards in terms of performance, attitudes, and expectations
• Pharmaceutical Marketing goes beyond selling and promotions, focusing on knowing and understanding the customer, the intended target market, and the set of marketing tools that significantly affect the marketplace
• Pharmaceutical Marketing is a unique bundle of management decisions directed to satisfy, delight, and surprise customers in the pharmaceutical business, their needs and wants through the exchange of products and value with others
• Human needs include physiological needs, security and safety needs, social needs, ego needs, and self-actualization needs according to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
• Human wants are the expression of needs, shaped by one's culture and individual personality
• Pharmaceutical Marketing means working closely with identified Pharmaceutical Markets to generate desired exchanges towards satisfying, delighting, and surprising human needs and wants
• Marketing activities are carried out by both sellers and buyers in the pharmaceutical industry
• Buyers themselves, meaning consumers or end-users, search for the best pharmaceutical products within their means
• In a seller's market, sellers have more power and buyers have to be more active marketers
• In a buyer's market, buyers have more power and sellers have to be more active marketers
• Pharmacists are becoming strong marketers in effectively communicating and satisfying the needs of target clientele in the drug industry
• Overhead costs are increasing, leading drugstores and hospitals to get involved in marketing to increase customer traffic, create new clientele, and improve overall business performance
• The Pharmaceutical Industry is made up of several markets, including Traditional Markets
• Traditional Markets consist of drugstores, hospital pharmacies, industrial clinics, private medical clinics, or dispensing physician's clinics
• Drugstores operate as wholesalers, retailers, or both, carrying a wide range of products from ethical drugs to groceries
• Drugstores are regulated by the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) and are monitored for compliance with rules and regulations
• Hospitals are classified into primary, secondary, and tertiary categories, with in-patient and out-patient departments
• Hospitals prepare formularies listing medicines and supplies to be carried by the hospital pharmacy
• Industrial Clinics are maintained by large companies for employees' medical needs, purchasing medicines and supplies for free or discounted rates
• Medical Clinics/Dispensing Physicians provide medical care services and dispense drug products directly to patients in their private clinics
• Dispensing physicians mushroomed in urban and rural areas nationwide, providing prompt medical care services and augmenting income from the purchase of medicines
• Many dispensing MD's clinics operate without a licensed pharmacist and compete with community and hospital pharmacies
• Non-Traditional Markets include groceries, supermarkets, trading stores, and sari-sari stores that sell OTC or proprietary drug products