As healthcare continues to evolve in the 21st century, pharmacists around the world have stepped beyond the traditional role of dispensing medicines. Today, they are becoming key contributors to patient care—offering therapeutic advice, monitoring drug effectiveness, and playing an active role in clinical decision-making. Sadly, Nepal is yet to catch that train. Instead of stepping up and claiming our space in healthcare, many of us in the pharmacy field got tangled in something that’s quietly killing our profession: license dealing.
Yes, while other health professionals are on the front lines fighting for their rights, fair recognition, and better working conditions, pharmacists in Nepal have remained alarmingly silent. The energy we should’ve invested in demanding rightful clinical roles somehow got rerouted into the marketplace—where licenses are rented like tools, not earned badges of responsibility.
Pharmacy Practice in Nepal: Where Are We?
Walk into a hospital in the USA, UK or Canada, and you’ll find a pharmacist sitting beside doctors, actively participating in clinical rounds. But here in Nepal? Pharmacists are still mostly invisible in patient care.
In most hospitals, our role is confined to supply rooms—mostly involved in doing transaction of medicines; buying and sellingmedicines like goods, or worse, not present at all. Despite our extensive academic training, we’re rarely asked to contribute to treatment plans, rational use of medicines, or patient safety—areas where pharmacists can truly make a difference.
Training and Clinical Skills: Nepal’s Silent Crisis in Healthcare
Talk to any fresh graduate and you’ll see the gap. There’s little to no structured upskilling, no proper clinical exposure, and no clear path toward specialization. While other professions continue to invest in advanced training and practical development, pharmacists are left to figure it out on their own.
The result? A generation of professionals who feel disconnected and underprepared—not because they lack potential, but because the system failed to nurture it .
Educational System & its Affiliation Like a Vegetable Market?
The sad reality is, selling affiliations and its seats in pharmacy colleges have multiplied without a roadmap. There’s no scientific study to assess demand, no strategy for placement, and no system to absorb graduates into the workforce. Institutions are mushrooming under questionable affiliations—some even say it’s like buying licenses to print money. It’s tragic when education—a noble field—turns into a vegetable market of opportunities bought and sold under the table.
This mismatch has flooded the market with graduates but failed to create any dignified space for them in hospitals or community health systems.
License Renting: A Quiet Crisis We Let Happen
Let’s be honest—renting out our licenses became a survival tool in a system that failed to recognize our skills. But it’s come at a cost. This practice has not only blurred professional lines but also devalued our role in the eyes of policymakers and the public. It’s no longer just a loophole—it’s a self-inflicted wound.
While other professions were organizing, lobbying, and striking for their seats at the table, we pharmacists were busy giving away ours. The few of us who did try to speak up were left without a united front. Fragmentation within our profession did more harm than good.
It’s Time to Feel, Fix, and Fuel Our Pharmacy Organizations Back to Purpose
Nepal has more than a dozen pharmacy associations and networks including Nepal Pharmacy Council (NPC)—yet, what do we have to show for it? Our collective strength has remained underutilized. In an age where a single tweet can shake a system, we have struggled to raise a voice that echoes.
None of these organizations have been able to push forward a national agenda that puts pharmacists where we belong: inside hospitals, involved in patient care, and shaping public health decisions. We need to ask: what are we waiting for?
Constitutional Right Is in the Shadows; Killing the Expertise
Our constitution promises the right to quality healthcare. But how can we fulfill that promise when there’s no pharmacist where medicine is being used? The global standard says, “Where there is a drug, there must be a pharmacist.” But in Nepal, that statement still sounds like a dream. We continue to allow drug distribution and usage without the presence of experts, compromising the very essence of patient safety.
Time to Wake Up—We’ll End Up on the Endangered List of the Healthcare Map
We are in a critical moment. This is not just about fixing policies—it’s about reclaiming our dignity. We must come together, demand the space we deserve in clinical settings, and end the silence that has held our profession back for decades.
The truth is, no one will hand us our rights on a silver platter—we have to earn them through collective action, professional integrity, and fearless advocacy. Let’s stop handing over our licenses like rental papers. Let’s stop waiting for change and start becoming the force that creates it.
“If we don’t fight for the pharmacy profession now, we may not have anything left to fight for tomorrow.”
Mahesh Shahi
Pharmacist, Executive MBA
