Availability of essential, generic medicines before and during COVID-19 at selected public pharmaceutical supply agencies in Ethiopia: a comparative cross-sectional study

ObjectivesLockdowns and border closures impacted medicine availability during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess the availability of essential, generic medicines for chronic diseases at public pharmaceutical supply agencies in Ethiopia.DesignComparative cross-sectional study.SettingThe availability of essential, generic medicines for chronic diseases was assessed at two public pharmaceutical supply agency hubs.ParticipantsThe current study included public supply agency hub managers, warehouse managers and forecasting officers at the study setting.OutcomesThe assessment encompassed the availability of chronic medicines on the day of data collection, as well as records spanning 8 months before the outbreak and 1 year during the pandemic. A total of 22 medicines were selected based on their inclusion in the national essential drug list for public health facilities, including 17 medicines for cardiovascular disease and 5 for diabetes mellitus.ResultsThe results of the study indicate that the mean availability of the selected basket medicines was 43.3% (95% CI: 37.1 to 49.5) during COVID-19, which was significantly lower than the availability of 67.4% (95% CI: 62.2 to 72.6) before the outbreak (p