The Effect of Pharmaceutical Procurement Practice on Medicine Availability: The Case of Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Supply Service (EPSS) Head Office.
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Date
2026-10
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Addis Abeba Universty
Abstract
The purposes of this research were to analyse how pharmaceutical procurement practices affects medicines availability at EPSS Head Office. Agency theory, resource based view theory, and transaction cost economics were the theoretical frameworks of this research. The study analysed quantitative data were collected from EPSS using structured questionnaire and available records are reviewed for verification along with qualitative data collected from key informants. A facility-based cross-sectional study using a mixed-methods approach was conducted at Ethiopian pharmaceutical supply service (EPSS) head office and respondents were selected through stratified random sampling. For analysis four independent variables including demand forecasting accuracy, procurement lead time management, supplier reliability and contract fulfilment and operational and structural efficiency were included in the study. Descriptive statistics showed that the Demand Forecasting Accuracy have the composite mean of 3.51 (High), Procurement Lead Time Management 3.25 (Moderate), Supplier Reliability & Contractfulfillment 3.35 (Moderate), Operational & Structural Efficiency 3.30 (Moderate) and fina Medicine Availability (DV) which have composite mean of 3.10 (Moderate). Inferential analysis revealed significant positive relationship between procurement practices and medicine availability at the EPSS Head Office (R² = 0.378, p <0.05) and linier regression was done and found that all the four variables have effect on medicne availability. Stock-outs of medicines seem to be rooted from both sequential and simultaneous bottlenecks occurred due to inaccurate forecasting, unreliable facility level data on medicine consumption and stock, unpredictable lead-times and poor supplier fulfilment of the set contract scores or minimum expected requirements
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Keywords
Pharmaceutical Procurement, Medicine Availability, EPSS, Demand Forecasting, Lead Time