Table 3.

National medicine policy year and objectives, reforms, and alignment with other national policies.

National drug/medicine policy year and objective	Reform dimension and policy items				Alignment to other national policies and plans
	Rational selection and use	Affordable price	Sustainable financing	Reliable health and supply system
1999: “to make essential drugs available and accessible to the population and to ensure the safety, efficacy, and the quality of drugs and their rational use by prescribers, dispensers, and consumers”	Rational drug use, Drug selection and registration, and Drug advertising and promotion	Local manufacture	Drug financing	Drug storage and distribution	• Essential drug list and formulary with therapeutic guidelines (1988) distributed to health practitioners. • Food and Drugs Law 1992 (PNDCL 305B) and the Pharmacy Act (Act 489) • Ghana National Drugs Programme associated with the development of a National Drug Policy • Vision 2020—growth and development—development of the pharmaceutical sector
2004: “to improve and sustain the health of the population of Ghana by ensuring the rational use and access to safe, effective, good quality, and affordable pharmaceutical products”	Drug Selection Rational Drug Use	Local manufacture of pharmaceutical and traditional medical products Generic policy	Drug Financing	Quality Assurance	• Health Sector Programme of Work 2nd • Public Procurement Act of 2003 (Act 663) and (Act 914)
2017: “to ensure universal, equitable and sustainable access to priority, efficacious, and safe medicines and other health technologies of acceptable quality for all people living in Ghana and promote their responsible use by healthcare providers and consumers”	Selection of essential medicines and health technologies Rational Medicine Use Health technology assessment	Medicine Pricing VAT exemptions for local manufacturing	Medicine Financing	Quality assurance of pharmaceuticals	• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC), SDG 3. • Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda 1 and 2 for wealth creation. • National Health Policy, Creating Wealth through Health, 2007. • Ghana Health Sector Medium Term Plan, 2010–2013 and 2014–2017