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Pharmaceutical representatives are an important promotional tool for pharmaceutical companies. This cross-sectional, exploratory study aimed to determine pharmaceutical representatives' beliefs and practices about their professional practice in Sudan. A random sample of 160 pharmaceutical representatives were interviewed using a pretested questionnaire. The majority were male (84.4%) and had received training in professional sales skills (86.3%) and about the products being promoted (82.5%). Only 65.6% agreed that they provided full and balanced information about products. Not providing balanced information was attributed by 23.1% to doctors' lack of time. However, 28.1% confessed they sometimes felt like hiding unfavourable information, 21.9% were sometimes or always inclined to give untrue information to make sales and 66.9% considered free gifts as ethically acceptable. More attention is needed to dissemination of ethical codes of conduct and training about the ethics of drug promotion for pharmaceutical representatives in Sudan. . Seuls 65,6 % affirmaient fournir des informations exhaustives et objectives sur les produits. Selon 23,1 % d'entre eux, l'absence d'objectivité était imputable au manque de temps des médecins. Toutefois, 28,1 % avouaient qu'il leur arrivait d'avoir le sentiment d'omettre des informations négatives, 21,9 % avaient parfois ou toujours tendance à fournir des informations fausses pour réaliser des ventes et 66,9 % considéraient les cadeaux comme éthiquement acceptables. Il est nécessaire de prêter davantage d'attention à la diffusion des codes de bonne conduite chez les visiteurs médicaux soudanais et à leur formation sur l'éthique de la promotion des médicaments.

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INTODUCTIONHealthcare providers in both developed and developing countries need adequate, comprehensive, easily accessible, accurate and balanced medication information to help them choose the appropriately reliably useful and safe medications that support rational prescribing decisions. They get access to such essentially needed medication information about old and new medications, from a diversity of sources.1-3 Especially in developing countries, the pharmaceutical industry through its various promotional tools, materials and activities represent an important source of medication information for healthcare providers. 4,5 Though was known to have a negative effect on healthcare prescribing practices. 6 However, doctors and other healthcare providers, greatly rely in their prescribing practices on medication information provided by the pharmaceutical industry. 7-9The pharmaceutical sales representative when calling (visiting) on doctors, always carry with them those glossy, colorful, and sight appealing brochures which display the main themes or messages of the promoted products. They usually leave them behind for healthcare providers further ABSTRACT Background: The main objective of this study which was the first of its kind in Sudan was the evaluation of the medication informational contents (section headings) of pharmaceutical companies' promotional brochures, their possible benefits, reliability and usefulness in the proper and rational use of drugs. Methods: Three hundred and fifty-one (n=351) brochures were collected from randomly selected doctors' clinics in Khartoum, Sudan. Ninety-two of those brochures were excluded for being either duplicates, reminder brochures, promoting medical devices or cosmetics. The remaining (259), were then screened to match their macroinformational contents (section headings) against same advised in world health organization ethical criteria for medicinal drug promotion. Results: Almost all the screened brochures displayed unbalanced and poorly evidence supported (48.2%) medication information messages, which minimized the risks of the promoted drugs (45.4%), while displaying section headings encouraging more use of the promoted products, in higher frequencies (93.66%).There was significant difference between the frequencies of display of medication information section headings of eight out of nine tested section headings, of a multinational and branded generic brochures (p. value ranged between 0.01 and 0.000). Conclusions: Screened brochures were found to display poorly reliable and unbalanced medication information. Healthcare providers shall, accordingly, seek independent medication information sources, and not solely depend on commercial sources of medication information. Official regulators shall strictly define and mandate medication information contents in printed pharmaceutical promotional materials. Healthcare providers should, also, master the skills of appraising such promotional printed materials if rational medication use is to be achieved.

The quality requirements of drug donation are different from those of other donated items. Purpose: To describe and assess key aspects of pharmaceutical donations in Sudan, the kinds of benefits and drawbacks associated with drug donations, and the government controlling role in the donation process. Methods: Retrospective and prospective studies were conducted in the period from April 2007 to Mar 2008 in the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and some working NGOs' data bases. Some quality aspects of donated drugs were explored. Six randomly selected nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were examined for the relevance and some aspects of quality of donated drugs such as whether the donated drugs were listed in the National Essential Drug List, or labeled in International Nonproprietary Names, their dosage forms, the language on the package and if the donated drugs were sampled or returned ones. Results: The study showed that most of the donated drugs were relevant to NEDL normative standards. The median times from the date of arrival to the date of expiration were more than 400 days. The time prior to expiration range between 44.8% and 47.5% were found less than one year in arrival. The top ten therapies were accounted for about 40 shipped items. The study was revealed that Sudan did not develop its own guidelines for drug donations and NGOs are making no effort to develop written donation policies. Conclusion: Development of national guidelines for drug donations is essential to control the donated drugs in Sudan.