GPHF-Minilab to catch counterfeits in Haiti

After a spate of counterfeiting episodes in recent months, a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, has taken delivery of a GPHF-Minilab to help detect fake medicines.

The GPHF-Minilab was specifically developed by the Global Pharma Health Fund, a charitable institution supported by German drugmaker Merck KGaA, to help in the detection of counterfeit and substandard medicines.

"Saint Damien children’s hospital ... is now protected against the infiltration of further substandard quality medicines," said the GPHF in a statement.

The work of the hospital’s chief pharmacist Cajuste Romel on rapid drug quality verification is now supported by a team of experts made up from the Bonn-based Senior Experts Service, a non-profit organisation which helps retired specialists pass on their skills and knowledge to others, and the German section of Pharmacists Without Borders.

The Saint Damien hospital provides free treatment for 20.000 people every year and is maintained by the private aid scheme Our Small Brothers and Sisters (Karlsruhe).

- Last month the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) donated a GPHF-Minilab to the authorities in the British Virgin Islands.


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