GPHF heralds donation of 500th Minilab

The Merck KGaA-backed Global Pharma Health Fund is celebrating the donation of its 500th Minilab for the detection of counterfeit and substandard medicines at a ceremony in Ghana tomorrow (June 6).

Each suitcase-sized Minilab consists of two units which together contain simple and low-cost test methods to check medicines for external abnormalities, identity and content, including assays for 57 commonly-used active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

The 500th Minilab will be donated to the Ghanaian authorities  at a function attended by Ghanaian Minister of Health Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, Minister for Youth and Sports Clement Kofi Humado, footballer Gerald Asamoah and Dr. Karim Bendhaou, general manager of Merck NW Africa.

Myanmar project gets underway

Meanwhile, the GPHF recently said it had delivered its first Minilabs in Myanmar, some years after first trying to get the authorities in the Southeast Asian country to agree to the deployment.

The Myanmar Ministry of Health agreed to a training programme conducted by the US Pharmacopeia's Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) programme that will focus in part on the use of the Minilab for basic drug testing. More than 30 staff received training in sampling, testing and reporting procedures as part of a medicines quality monitoring system.