The Multinational Drug Companies in Zaire: Their Adverse Effect on Cost and Availability of Essential Drugs

Abstract

An analysis of the types and costs of drugs imported by seven multinational pharmaceutical companies in Zaire, an underdeveloped country in Africa, reveals that three-fourths of the drugs consisted of expensive and nonessential items. The prices of essential drugs (24 percent of their total imports) were much higher than those of available generic sources (average difference of 300 percent). The importation of nonessential drugs and the high prices paid for essential drugs exacerbate the scarcity of needed items because of Zaire's limited supply of hard currency. In addition, two drug firms imported and promoted the sale of aminopyrone-dipyrone analgesic-antipyretics, drugs now rarely used in Western industrialized countries because of potentially fatal complications. Thus, in Zaire, the multinational pharmaceutical industry has an adverse effect on the availability and cost of drugs, as well as on the pattern of drug usage.