Dar hosts key meeting on medicines

Dar es Salaam. Medical and other health experts from across Africa and beyond will meet in Dar es Salaam Monday to exchange ideas on the best ways to improve the quality of locally-produced and imported medicines.

This comes in the face of increasing concerns over massive distribution of sub-standard medicines on the continent.

“We want to ensure that the African people have access to safe, effective, and quality-assured medicines,” reads a joint statement issued yesterday by the organisers of the four-day (February 12-15) ‘Africa Medicines Quality Forum (AMQF) and Risk-based Post-Market Surveillance of Medicines.’

These are the United States Pharmacopeia convention (USP), the New Partnership for African Development (NePAD) Agency, and the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA).

Scheduled to be officially graced by the presence of the deputy minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Faustine Ndungulile, AMQF is a new, Africa-based initiative which intends to broadly and strategically address the challenges associated with the poor quality of medicines distributed and consumed in African countries.

AMQF comes against a backdrop of alarming rates of reported cases of sub-standard drugs in many parts of Africa, including Tanzania.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 42 per cent of reported cases of ‘sub-standard and falsified’ (SF) products were in Africa.

“That’s the reason why we are organising this forum… We want to find durable solutions to these problems – and, ultimately, stop production and supply of sub-standard drugs in African markets,” the statement says.

Among other things, the workshop seeks to improve coordination across African regulatory authorities, strengthening their ability to pool resources and knowledge in protecting patients by more effectively combating sub-standard and falsified medical products.

“AMQF’s focus will include regional ‘quality control’ (QC); capacity building; post-marketing surveillance; laboratory proficiency testing and certification, and bioequivalence studies for generic medicines – as well as advocacy,” the statement further says.

“At the end of the day, the workshop will establish AMQF’s technical working group (TWG), set its structure, and develop its first-year activity plan.”

According to the statement, the meeting marks a significant milestone as AMQF transitions to align with the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation Initiative (AMRHI), as part of the African Union (AU).

This is a critical step towards harmonisation, and eventual launch of the African Medicines Agency (AMA).

Drawing senior executives from private companies and other organisations – as well as quality control and post-marketing surveillance managers from various African regulatory agencies, key leaders and stakeholders in Africa’s health sector – the workshop will serve as a platform for participants to understand the risk-based approach to post-marketing surveillance (PMS) of medicines in Africa. “Recommendations of the workshop will help African countries to establish and implement effective post-marketing surveillance programs, and will contribute to the harmonization of medicine regulations and good practices in alignment with the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization (AMRH) Initiative,” the statement elaborates.

The meeting is expected to bring together participants from Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cameroun, Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Guinea, and South Africa.

Other delegates will be drawn from regional agencies – such as the West African Health Agency (WAHO) – and development partners, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), USAID and the World Bank.