Background:The access to essential medicines for non-communicable disease treatment is unacceptably low worldwide. The fundamental right to health cannot be fulfilled without equitable access to essential medicines.Methodology:A cross-sectional study was carried out in 94 community pharmacies of Kathmandu valley. Non-probability quota sampling method was adopted for the purpose. Village Development Committees with more than 5000 populations were included in the study. The availability of the selected essential medicines, their price and producer identity were observed. Data entry and analysis were carried out in Microsoft Excel and Statistical package for social science.Result:The availability of the essential medicines was not 100% in Kathmandu valley. High competition and high price variation were seen in metformin 500 mg (254.6%) and atorvastatin 10 mg (327.6%). The study showed that maximum (54.7%) brands were manufactured in Nepal. Furthermore, atorvastatin 10 mg (0.6 day wage) was found to be quite expensive, and glibenclamide 5 mg (0.1 day wage) was the cheapest one for diabetes mellitus treatment for 1 month of treatment period compared to daily wages of other essential medicines.Conclusion:The availability of the selected essential medicines was found to be ununiform and insufficient in the entire region. High competition was observed in the products with high price variation, and the access to cost-effective brand was poor. Furthermore, it was found that government salary is affordable to treat non-communicable disease with the help of the essential medicines.

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Medicines are an essential component of health-care services. The community pharmacies have great value in terms of providing medicinal services in developing countries. Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) assesses whether the medicines are safe, effective, available, and accessible and are used correctly. The objective of the study is to assess the good pharmacy practice among community pharmacy of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur districts.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> This was a cross-sectional prospective study. A quota sampling approach was adopted to sample 94 community pharmacies. Data on the premises, storage, prescription handling and dispensing, pharmacy services and rational use of drug were collected using pre-tested questionnaire.  </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> The overall compliance with GPP indicators for Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur districts were found to be 12.81 (55.69%), 11.13 (48.39%) and 12.99 (56.48%). On structure wise study, the GPP compliance was higher in others category (Metropolitan city, Sub-metropolitan city and Municipality) i.e. 13.49 (58.65%) and 11.9 (51.74%) in VDC. The studies showed the declining involvement of pharmacists or pharmacy assistants in community pharmacy for more than eight hours a working day i.e. Lalitpur (65%), Bhaktapur (56%) and Kathmandu (59%). Antibiotic dispensing without prescription was highly practiced in Lalitpur 50% compared to Bhaktapur (44%), Kathmandu (34%).</p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> It was found that all districts miserably failed to comply with the standards set by GPP particularly Bhaktapur. Pharmacies seemed to have established their place in the society more as a business entity rather than healthcare establishment.