title: Inappropriate drug donations: what has happened since the 1999 WHO guidelines?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Drug donations to developing countries may be part of medical relief operations in acute emergencies, development aid in non-emergency situations, or a corporate donations programme. After a number of documented inappropriate drug donations, the World Health Organization developed the 'Guidelines for Drug Donations', with the second and final version published in 1999.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We reviewed the medical literature on drug donations since the Guidelines publication in 1999.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literature was retrieved from PubMed and other on-line databases as well as from relevant websites providing medical literature for use in developing countries. We considered the following donations to be inappropriate: (i) essential drugs in excessive quantities; (ii) mixed unused drugs (unsorted medicines and free samples); and (iii) drug dumping (large quantities of useless medicines).
  
  
  RESULTS
  We retrieved 25 publications dated after 1999, including 20 and 5 from the scientific literature and 'grey' literature (technical reports, working papers), respectively. New information concerned emergencies in East Timor, Mozambique, El Salvador, Gujarat State (India), Aceh (Indonesia) and Sri Lanka. Except for East Timor and Gujarat, inappropriate donations still occurred, accounting for 85%, 37%, 70% and 80% of donations in Mozambique, El Salvador, Aceh and Sri Lanka, respectively. Very little information was found on drug donations in non-emergency situations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are few recent reports on the compliance of drug donations with the World Health Organization guidelines. For emergency situations, there is still room for improvement. Drug donations in non-emergency situations need to be evaluated. A reform of drug donations policy is needed.
authors.affiliation: Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands. D.vandijk@student.maastrichtuniversity.nl
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: van Dijk
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dinant
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Jacobs
mesh_terms: D000533:Altruism; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D007391:International Cooperation; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D012066:Relief Work; D014944:World Health Organization
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations