Background: Hypertension is a common public health problem that impacts more than onethird of the world population. Awareness of physicians towards the guidelines of high blood pressure management is an essential step to reduce the consequences of high blood pressure. Objective: This study was aimed to assess the awareness of physicians towards high blood pressure treatment according to the recent report of the Joint National Committee (JNC8) guideline. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 400 physicians during the period from February to April 2017. Physicians were recruited from public and private hospitals as well as clinics. A validated questionnaire that incorporated the changes seen in JNC 8, as well as the specific modality of hypertension management based on other guidelines, was administered to the participating physicians. Results: Three hundred and eighty-nine physicians completed the questionnaire; with all the interviewed physicians have ever heard about JNC 8. The practice of general practitioners (GPs) was significantly deviated from the recommended guideline of blood pressure management as compared to consultants, specialists, and residents. Additionally, certain variations were found among consultants, specialists, and residents with slight superiority of consultants towards most aspects. Conclusion: The finding of this study highlights an inadequate knowledge of GPs in Yemen towards high blood pressure management guidelines. The findings of this study emphasize the necessity for continuous medical education programs that are specially designed to target GPs. Continued update of medical curricula in Yemeni universities is also needed.

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AimsThe aim of this study was to describe the dispensing errors that occurred during the dispensing process in selected hospital pharmacies in Sana’a, Yemen; and to describe their types and causes.MethodologyA prospective study was carried out in selected hospital pharmacies in Yemen over 40 days using a validated tool. ResultsA total of 9000 dispensed prescriptions were evaluated for the dispensing errors and 2.13 % dispensing errors were identified. Wrong dosage form (134/192); wrong strength (24/192); wrong drug (18/192); wrong quantity, wrong instructions written and drug available in the pharmacy but not given were (6/192) and dispense the expired drugs (3/192) were the reported dispensing errors in this study. Poor handwriting, similar drug names, similar drug packaging, fatigue, heavy work, workforce issues, and poor communication were the most common reported causes of dispensing errors. ConclusionThe prevalence of dispensing errors in this study was 2.13%. Pharmacists can play an important role in the improving the safety of medicines. Study of the dispensing errors incidence in national wide, it's types and causes of dispensing errors are very important and highly recommended. Study the impact of different interventions to improve dispensing quality, reducing and preventing dispensing errors are strongly recommended.

Objectives: To evaluate the ethics of pharmaceutical marketing practices in Sana’a city, Yemen. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 400 physicians and 50 pharmaceutical companies in the period from March to August 2018. Data about pharmaceutical marketing ethics were collected from physicians and pharmaceutical companies using two types of self-administrated, structured questionnaires. Data were analyzed with appropriate statistical tests using IBM SPSS Statistics, version 21.0. Results: The majority of physicians (60.0%) agreed that medical samples had been used most frequently as a promotional tool for pharmaceutical marketing, followed by gifts (14.0%). More than half of physicians were satisfied with the way of pharmaceutical marketing in Yemen. Personal relationships and medical samples and gifts were the factors affecting their prescriptions, being reported by about a third of physicians each. Meanwhile, most physicians (44.0%) preferred medical conferences and exhibitions as a promotional benefit to be gotten for prescribing the company’s products. The majority of physicians (62.0%) agreed that the availability of medical samples affect their prescriptions, and about 28.2% of physicians reported that all medical samples are used by their patients. Most physicians (37.0%) perceived that only 50% of medical representatives respond well to their queries related to marketed drugs, and 41.5% of physicians agreed that global companies are more compliant with ethical marketing. About 60% of the physicians reported not facing unethical promotions, and the majority (54.0%) agreed that unethical pharmaceutical marketing is the responsibility of companies, physicians, and representatives. There was a statistically significant difference in the proportion of drug prescriptions affected by medical representative visits and availability of medical samples on prescription in relation to the work experience of physicians. On the other hand, there was a statistically significant difference in facing an unethical promotion offered by companies for prescribing their products and the attribution of unethical pharmaceutical marketing in relation to the type of medical profession of physicians. Conclusions: Pharmaceutical marketing in Yemen still depends on traditional tools, with the lack of ethical guidelines or codes for pharmaceutical marketing in the country. Work experience and medical profession of physicians can significantly affect pharmaceutical marketing. The spread of unethical marketing is the responsibility of pharmaceutical companies, physicians and medical representatives. Therefore, it is recommended to develop well-defined and updated ethical standards and national guidelines for pharmaceutical marketing by the Ministry of Public Health and Population. Furthermore, official campaigns should be regularly carried out to control and restrict unethical promotion. Further studies on the ethics of pharmaceutical marketing are also recommended. Pharmaceutical companies should continuously train their medical representatives and provide physicians with the latest medical knowledge about new drugs. Keywords: Pharmaceutical marketing, Ethics, IFPMA guidelines, Sana’a

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