Chile
October 2005

WSMI Director General David Webber, and ILAR Director General Hector Bolanos held a meeting in October with the new Chilean member association Camara de Medicamentos de Venta Directa (CAMEVED). The Chilean situation is unusual in the degree to which access to OTC medicines is behind the counter in pharmacies (see picture), while at the same time there is widespread inappropriate self-prescription of prescription medicines. Presentations were made on the ways in which WSMI and ILAR can support the work of CAMEVED, and a visit to a local manufacturing site undertaken.
Separately David Webber gave interviews to the press (El Mercurio, the leading broadsheet in Chile) and TV (Patricia Espejo of the Television Nacional de Chile, host of the popular prime-time programme 'Vida 2000')