Many developing nations have developed national drug policies, a concept that has been actively promoted by the WHO. For example, the national drug policy for Indonesia drawn up in 1983 had the following objectives: To ensure the availability of drugs according to the needs of the population. To improve the distribution of drugs in order to make them accessible to the whole population. To ensure efficacy, safety quality and validity of marketed drugs and to promote proper, rational and efficient use. To protect the public from misuse and abuse. To develop the national pharmaceutical potential towards the achievements of self-reliance in drugs and in support of national economic growth. To achieve these objectives in Indonesia, the following changes were implemented: A national list of essential drugs was established and implemented in all public sector institutions. The list is revised periodically. A ministerial decree in 1989 required that drugs in public sector institutions be prescribed generically and that Pharmacy and Therapeutics committees be established in all hospitals. District hospitals and health centers have to procure their drugs based on the essential drugs list. Most drugs are supplied by three government-owned companies. Training modules have been developed for drug management and rational drug use and these have been rolled out to relevant personnel. The central drug laboratory and provincial quality control laboratories have been strengthened. A major teaching hospital has developed a program on rational drug use, developing a hospital formulary, guidelines for rational diagnosis and treatment guidelines for the rational use of antibiotics. Generic drugs have been available at affordable costs to low-income groups. Encouraging rational prescribing One of the first challenges is to promote and develop rational prescribing, and a number of international initiatives exist in this area. WHO has actively promoted rational drug use as one of the major elements in its Drug Action Programme. In its publication A Guide to Good Prescribing the process is outlined as: define the patient's problem specify the therapeutic objectives verify whether your personal treatment choice is suitable for this patient start the treatment give information, instructions and warnings monitor (stop) the treatment. The emphasis is on developing a logical approach, and it allows for clinicians to develop personal choices in medicines (a personal formulary) which they may use regularly. The program seeks to promote appraisal of evidence in terms of proven efficacy and safety from controlled clinical trial data, and adequate consideration