After ten years of practical experience in 70 countries worldwide, GPHF has completely revised the GPHF-Minilab® manuals. The two original manuals and all eight supplements published since 1999 have been collected into one complete, user-friendly work. In 300 pages – arranged into volumes on “Colour Reaction Tests” and “Thin Layer Chromatographic Tests” – test protocols are presented for a total of 43 drug substances, which can be tested with the GPHF-Minilab®. Each individual test is described in the manuals step-by-step, and the expectancy range of the final results is illustrated for each compound. In addition, both manuals contain general introductory chapters on methods and operations, guides and templates for reporting and sampling, as well as a complete list of GPHF-Minilab® inventory items facilitating replacement.

The new manuals are now available with each GPHF-Minilab® delivered and are also a valuable addition for all former users of the compact mini-laboratory since they now also contain the newly developed tests for artemether, oseltamivir, praziquantel and primaquine.

The revised manuals will be available in English first of all. French and Spanish translations will be available in the next few months. The new manuals can be obtained directly from GPHF.

Demo versions of the new GPHF-Minilab® manuals can be accessed here:

    

If worldwide demand for the GPHF Minilab® is any indication of how serious many countries are taking the fight against counterfeit medicines, it means hard times ahead for counterfeiters.

Since Global Pharma Health Fund e.V. (GPHF) was founded in July of last year, on average one Minilab is sent each week for use in Asia, Africa or Latin America. Of these, 37 Minilabs went to Sub-Saharan Africa alone, mainly into national malaria control programs, where at present the region west and south of the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Southern Sudan) is being carefully scrutinised by authorities to safeguard new pharmaceutical malaria treatment principles (arteminisin-based combination therapy) through the wide-ranging use of 25 Minilabs. The area is so affected by counterfeit medicines that Kenya has already had to use secret service forces to fight counterfeit gangs and secure the legal supply of genuine malaria drugs.

In the Philippines – which has already had five mobile laboratory units in place for some time – the use of an additional eight GPHF Minilabs will concentrate primarily on tuberculostatic drug quality monitoring – a project maintained by the technical alliance initiative of the USP Drug Quality and Information programme.

Not only is the demand for the GPHF Minilab® still great, so is the interest in training courses on how to apply the testing methods. GPHF project manager Dr. Richard Jähnke conducted training sessions over several days in May in both Southern Sudan and Thailand.

In co-operation with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Jähnke trained five native pharmacists in the autonom region of the Southern Sudan, who are to supervise drug quality at border posts with Kenya and Uganda, at the international airport in Juba, in the central medical stores as well as the country’s only teaching hospital. Next to other medicines, the focus was also on practising tests for malaria compounds, since acute malaria represents one of the most urgent health risks for the local population and one which can only be treated with effective drug therapy.

Together with the international technical assistance programme of the United States Pharmacopoeia, the GPHF project manager also advised Thai health authorities in the fight against counterfeit drugs and trained inspectors from selected border regions in the application of the GPHF Minilabs for special cross border malaria control projects. As part of “Operation Jupiter”, Interpol was recently able to trace 240,000 packages of counterfeit antimalarial pills in the border regions between Burma, Thailand and China and protect 24,000 patients against their consumption with deadly consequences.

After completing both missions, Dr. Jähnke is confident that the staff now trained and the use of the GPHF-Minilab® will facilitate continuous monitoring of drug quality and an early alert of counterfeit medicines proliferation at Thai border regions and in the Southern Sudan.

Dr. Jähnke (third left) explains the testing methods of the GPHF-Minilab®.

Within hours the participants of the training course execute the testing methods.

The GPHF Minilab® may not only secure drug quality, but also support investigational research. In May 2008, Bates et al. published the study “Antimalarial Drug Quality in the Most Severely Malarious Parts of Africa – A Six Country Study” based on field research employing also thin layer chromatographic tests of the Global Pharma Health Fund’s compact mini-laboratory. According to the results of the study, over a third of the drugs tested did not meet valid quality standards. See details at PLoS ONE, May 2008, Volume 3, Issue 5, e2132.

For a long time already, community pharmacists of the Celesio Group – one of Europe’s leading players in the medicines supply chain (wholesale, retail and associated services) – have been trained in how to operate the GPHF-Minilab® for regular drug quality control of stock material in faith-based drug supply of developing countries. One such course took now place under the direction of GPHF project manger and pharmacist Dr. Richard Jähnke at Frankfurt University. Four young pharmacists from Norway and Great Britain received training. Another GPHF training course for Celesio Group employees is already scheduled for early September this year.

Impressum:
Global Pharma Health Fund e.V. (GPHF)
Walther-von-Cronberg-Platz 6
D-60594 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
Telephone +49 (0) 69 / 96 23 87 60 – 0
Fax: +49 (0) 69 / 96 23 87 60 – 9
Email: info@gphf.org
Internet: www.gphf.org

The Global Pharma Health Fund e.V. (GPHF) is a charitable organization initiated and funded exclusively by donations from Merck Darmstadt.

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