Objective:

Collect and analyze information regarding the situation of the National Drug Policy of Panama in 2018-2019.

Methods:

It´s a descriptive study related to the situational diagnosis and fulfillment of the objectives and principles on which the National Drug Policy (PNM) is based according to its legal foundations. A survey was prepared based on the components, guidelines and strategies set out in the PNM related to the pharmaceutical sector, both public and private. From a list of email contacts, recipients related to the topic were chosen and the survey was applied to them through the Survey Monkey platform.

Results:

230 people answered where 65% were women, the age group that most participated was 51 to 55 years old, 54.3% were pharmacists. 84% of those interviewed answered that the National Drug Commission of Panama had been created. 90% indicated that there was a regulatory framework aimed at monitoring the quality of drugs. 78% reported that there is an exchange of information and early warnings with the use of drugs at the national level.

Conclusions:

This situational diagnosis was not aimed at examining, correcting or qualifying the efforts that could have been made for the development of the National Drug Policy, giving us the general conception that the respondents had about it, considering that this exercise was carried out in the years 2018-2019. It is up to the governing body to propose its own evaluation of the PNM.

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