GPHF and CePAT form partnership to fight counterfeit drugs
The partnership will strengthen resources to conduct quality control testing to detect substandard and counterfeit medications in Africa
A new partnership has been formed between the Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF), a charity funded by German pharmaceutical giant Merck KgaA, and the Center for Pharmaceutical Advancement and Training (CePAT) in Ghana to help build local and regional resource to conduct pharmaceutical quality control testing to detect substandard and counterfeit medicines in Africa.
Counterfeit medications are a major challenge in developing countries, where there are limited resources for screening and quality assurance.
The collaboration between CePAT, a facility established by the US Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), and GPHF outlines a plan to improve local capacity to detect substandard and counterfeit drugs through training at CePAT's facility in Accra and the use of the GPHF-Minilab, a mobile mini-laboratory for rapid drug quality verification and counterfeit medicines detection.
'CePAT is one of the most important initiatives to ever be implemented in this part of the world, as it goes deep into the root problem of lack of quality medicines in Africa, which is insufficient human resource capacity,' said Stephen Opuni, CEO of the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority.
A memorandum of understanding formalising the alliance was signed during a ceremony hosted by the Peter Ammon, the German Ambassador to the United States, at his residence in Washington, DC.
To date, 600 Minilabs have been supplied to health facilities across 80 countries.
