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Reducing or removing all kind of wastes, which are defects, inventory, waiting, transportation and extra-processing, are the main aim for organizations in order to minimize cost, so, excluding any activity which cannot add value is required. The main aim of this study is to select the main reasons standing behind any kind of waste in Diyala pharmaceutical supply chain like damage, spoilage, surplus, shortage and expiry date in medicines and pharmaceutical supplies; and administration activities based on the questionnaire prepared for this purpose. The Diyala health sector is one of the Iraqi health sectors linked centrally with the Ministry of Health. The main tool for collecting data was secondary data on website and unstructured interviews with 15 drug store and pharmacy directors; also, a multi-choice questionnaire was distributed to 42 drug stores and pharmacies in Diyala health sector. The main results in this study, there are several reasons behind waste in the Diyala pharmaceutical supply chain. The expiration of medicines and medical materials is the first reason and the storage conditions are the second reason. There are difficulties in reporting surplus medicines and medical materials because of long administrative procedures. The main difficulties to report expired medicines and medical materials is because of fear of accountability.

: lean --- waste --- pharmaceutical --- supply chain