Publishing a Drug Information Bulletin: Experiences from a developing country

The Drug Information Bulletin is published by the Drug Information Center (DIC) of Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal every quarter. The DICs in Nepal are linked together under the Drug Information Network of Nepal. The first issue of the bulletin was published in November 2003. The bulletin has various sections under which the articles are categorized. The bulletin is distributed internally within the hospital and in the college. The hard copies of the bulletin are also distributed to various organizations in Nepal and around 20 countries. Recently, Vigil, a pharmacovigilance bulletin, has been started as a two-page pullout. The bulletin is financially supported by the institution. The contributors of the bulletin are mainly from the departments of Pharmacology and Hospital Pharmacy. There are occasional contributions from outside as well. The resources of the DIC are used for publishing the bulletin. Though there are limitations, the editorial team has shown that it is possible to publish a quarterly bulletin in a resource-limited setting in a developing country.