Consumer Rights and the Limits to Trust in an African Pharmaceutical Market: the Right to Pharmaceutical Information and Regulatory Implications in Rural Tanzania

Most Sub-Saharan African countries’ pharmaceutical markets are poorly regulated and subject to perverse incentives for dispensers and variable levels of information for consumers. These conditions may compel owners of pharmaceutical outlets to employ unqualified dispensers who provide poor product information to consumers, betray their trust, and consequently deny consumers the right to health. A research study conducted in private and non-government (NGO) pharmaceutical outlets in rural Tanzania that interviewed exiting consumers, outlet owners and dispensers, found evidence of a pharmaceutical market with perverse incentives and irregular information. Consumers are not receiving the correct and essential information for the medications they are buying. Dispensers are poorly informed of the pharmaceutical information they should provide and are influenced by market incentives that act against consumers’ interests and rights. The market was found to be poorly regulated, giving incentives to owners of pharmaceutical outlets to employ unqualified dispensers, who also act to maximize their own profit, resulting in suboptimal services provided to consumers. This article argues for a participatory regulatory framework that establishes an effective public health policy for providers of pharmaceutical markets and consumers and that strengthens implementation of consumers’ rights to complete medicine information.