Welcome to the faith-based Drug Supply Organizations (DSOs) portal. This portal aims to be an online meeting room, library and information exchange to increase networking between DSOs and support capacity development.

This work is part of EPN's Access programme. This portal was developed after a meeting of 16 DSOs in a participative workshop setting, in June 2004, in Nairobi, Kenya. This same event also identified a set of characteristics of a functional DSO, as well as indicators for these characteristics.

The DSO project was made possible through funding by partners. The DSO project builds on the WHO/EPN Multi-country Study of Medicine Supply and Distribution Activities of Faith-Based Organizations  Multi-country study (1.5 MB).    

This portal features:   

• A list of EPN DSO members and links to more information on them      
• A library of materials and web links to support DSOs              

Should you wish to sign up for e-pharmalink, the EPN newsletter for pharmacists working in resource-poor environments, please use the 'subscribe to e-Pharmalink' box on the right side of our Home page.

Resources

•  Multi-country study of medicine supply and distribution activities of FBOs in Sub-Saharan countries (1.5 MB) by EPN and WHO, 2006.
•  Enhancing the capacity and sustainability of faith-based drug supply organizations (149.67 kB) the EPN project document, 2004.
•  DSO Feedback report June 2004 (253.43 kB) report of the feedback meeting on the WHO/EPN drug supply organization study, held in Nairobi, June 2004.
•  Handbook of supply management at first-level health care facilities (1.28 MB) first version for country adaptation, by the WHO, EPN and other partners, 2006.
•  Multi-Country Regional pooled Procurement of Medicines (434.07 kB) Identifying key principles for enabling regional pooled procurement and a framework for inter-regional collaboration in the African, Caribbean and Pacific Island countries. Meeting report from the WHO, January 2007.
•  Quality assurance of pharmaceuticals (1.78 MB) a compendium of guidelines and related materials. Volume 2. Good manufacturing practices and inspection. By the WHO, 2007.
•  How to develop a national formulary based on the WHO Model Formulary (619.52 kB) a practical guide by the WHO, 2004.
•  Guidelines for price discounts of single-source pharmaceuticals (226.35 kB) by the WHO, 2003.
  
•  Guidelines for the storage of essential medicines and other health commodities (883.91 kB) by the WHO, 2003.
•  Operational principles for good pharmaceutical procurement (82.68 kB) by the WHO, 1999.
• WHO Global Price Reporting mechanism a web-based transaction database containing information on transaction prices and quantities of antiretroviral medicines (ARVs), tuberculosis and malaria drugs and commodities.
• WHO Expert Committee Reports on specifications for pharmaceutical preparations the latest edition of this yearly report was published in May 2010. Consult the website for previous reports.
• More resources in the EPN online resource centre.

Projects and information

• Desirable characteristics of a Faith-based pharmaceutical supply organization
• DSO Project
• Are you paying too much for ARVs?
• Multi-Country Study of Medicine Supply and Distribution Activities of Faith-Based Organizations  
• Multi-country study feedback meeting
• EPN DSO members