Kathmandu, April 19 -- DRUG MONEY: Patients stand in line to purchase medicines at the Bayalpata Hospital Pharmacy in remote Achham District (left) and over the counter in Kathmandu (right). In the ten years since Krishna Bahadur Magar opened his pharmaceutical store, Sabika Pharma, opposite the Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj, his shelves have found increasing space for made-in-Nepal products.

Domestically manufactured medicines now contribute as much as half of the sales of pharmaceutical products in Nepal. But although this has made Nepal more self-reliant in medicines, there are problems with quality, aggressive commercialisation and over-prescription.

Says Magar: "When I first set up shop, the drugs I bought for retail used to ent...