Informal Medicine Trade Tests Sierra Leone’s Push to Modernise Pharmacy Care
Sierra Leone’s effort to build a more professional and digitally enabled pharmacy sector faces a persistent challenge as informal medicine sellers continue to operate outside the regulated system.
The issue emerged during World Pharmacists Day on Friday, when pharmacy authorities highlighted the need to strengthen pharmacists while addressing the continued sale of medicines through informal channels.
This year’s global theme, “Empowering pharmacists for healthier futures,” calls for pharmacists to receive the skills, recognition, technology and institutional support needed to contribute more fully to health care. The International Pharmaceutical Federation selected the theme for Sept. 25, 2026.
Dr. Moses Batema, chief pharmacist and chairman of the Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone, said empowering pharmacists involves more than increasing their numbers. He said they need appropriate competencies, professional recognition and a regulatory environment that allows them to apply their expertise effectively.
Batema also pointed to the growing role of digital systems and data in pharmacy practice. He described a future in which pharmacists can use information on medicine consumption, stock levels and distribution patterns to identify problems and make better decisions.
That shift is already reflected in Sierra Leone’s regulatory agenda. In August, the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Pharmacy Board signed an agreement aimed at digitising professional registration, licensing, practitioner records and regulatory oversight of pharmaceutical premises and products.
But the formal system operates alongside a less regulated medicine market.
Accounts from medicine vendors gathered for World Pharmacists Day reporting showed why the informal trade persists. One vendor, who requested anonymity, said police arrests had not stopped the activity and described medicine sales as a source of livelihood. Another seller said she learned to identify medicines for different illnesses through experience.
The Pharmacy Board officially identifies the hawking of medicines and the operation of unlicensed pharmaceutical outlets as enforcement concerns. Its enforcement department is mandated to combat the sale of unregistered, counterfeit, substandard and expired medicines and to address illegal pharmaceutical outlets.
The Board has also previously called for stronger action against medicine peddling, including greater public awareness, improved enforcement and research into the reasons people seek medicines through informal sellers.
Batema said pharmacists should therefore be viewed as more than professionals who dispense prescriptions.
He argued that their contribution should include identifying, preventing and resolving problems associated with medicine use.
The challenge, however, extends beyond the pharmacy profession itself. As formal pharmacies adopt digital tools and pharmacists are encouraged to take a larger role in patient care, people who obtain medicines from informal sellers may remain outside that system of professional guidance and regulatory oversight.
The World Pharmacists Day discussion therefore placed two developments side by side: the modernisation of the formal pharmaceutical sector and the continuing presence of an informal medicine economy.
For Sierra Leone’s pharmacy authorities, strengthening the profession will require both technological and professional advancement and continued efforts to address medicine sales outside the regulated system.