The World Health Organization defines access to medicine as a priority for citizens, where a
functioning medicine supply chain is necessary. This paper identifies challenges for reliable
medicine supply chains with effective in-country distribution systems regarding the medicine
availability due to inventory management and transport and distribution.
The findings in this paper are based on document analysis and semi-structured interviews. It
identifies main challenges, outlines good practice based on country specific examples and recommends approaches to improve medicine availability. 20 interviews have been conducted with
experts of medical supply chains. This comprehensive research is the first, which compares literature to findings from semi-structured interviews, based on supply chain challenges.
