Another reason to celebrate: The Global Pharma Health Fund just recently supplied the 300th GPHF-Minilab®. This unique portable lab for field-testing can now be found in 70 countries, on all five continents, proving quick and reliable drug quality verification even under severe climate conditions.

The GPHF-Minilab® was specially developed to help in the detection of counterfeit and substandard medicines. This problem is particularly endemic in developing countries, where such products have led to many deaths among patients already. Minilab's are primarily deployed in African (151) and Asian (85) countries. More than 40 common active ingredients for the treatment of communicable diseases like malaria, TB, and AIDS, as well as standard antimicrobials can be screened using this portable lab.

Dr. Jürgen Knackmuß, GPHF chairman, about the project: "We are very proud that 300 of our laboratory units are now operating throughout the world. Many countries still lack the facilities to test the quality of drugs consistently in a reliable fashion. Our field kits are using simple and robust test methods to provide practical solutions and immediate protection against counterfeit medicines consumption and safeguards drug supply in developing countries”.

Celebrating the 300th Minilab, the Global Pharma Health Fund has donated two additional units for use in Haiti and Burundi.

The Minilab for Haiti was provided to "Nos Petit Frères et Soeurs” (engl. our small brothers and sisters), an organisation whose efforts include a children's hospital working on the treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, cancer and malnutrition. The Caribbean island state of Haiti is amongst the poorest in the world. The donated Minilab is intended to provide quick checks on the quality of locally supplied medicines.

Richard Jähnke from GPHF project management hands over the Minilab to Father Richard Frechette (right), medical practitioner and director of the St. Damien children's hospital in Haiti.

The GPHF-Minilab® for Burundi will be deployed in a school recently established to train pharmaceutical technicians. Based on simple operation procedures in the manuals provided, the trainees will quickly learn how to analyse drugs and verify their quality. This move could be actually considered as a first step to use the Minilab’s equipment for teaching and training at universities and vocational schools elsewhere.

The GPHF-Minilab® has arrived in Burundi for use by pharmaceutical technicians in training at the Ecole Polyvalente Carolus Magnus in Bujumbura.

With the English update in place since April already, the completely reviewed manuals for the GPHF-Minilab® are now available in French, too. Presented in two volumes "Tests de Réactions Colorées" and "Tests de Chromatographie sur Couche Mince", 300 pages with more than 200 pictures and illustrations are guiding through test methods on 43 essential drugs manageable by the GPHF-Minilab®. The first French manuals will soon be sent to Haiti, Burundi, the Congo as well as into projects of the technical assistance initiative of the USP drug quality and information programme. A demo version of the two manuals can be found here:

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Spanish versions of the two manuals will be available early next year.

The GPHF-Minilab® equipment has been used to a good effect in a WHO assisted market survey on drug quality in Uganda. The Minilab technology has been deployed here to proof counterfeit medicines proliferation in countries of the East African region. The study was put in place with the backing of the Ugandan health authorities who proofed by random checks that 35 percent of anti-malaria medicines being sold in the capital city of Kampala were counterfeit.

GPHF Project Manager Dr. Jähnke views the investigation as yet another proof of the Minilab's effectiveness: "We are seeing time and again that our laboratory delivers reliable results not just in single health facilities but also in complex drug quality monitoring studies within priority disease programmes. Just a few months ago, a similar study on the quality of antimalarials in Africa was published based on data generated with the Minilab’s technology." For further information on this, see also GPHF-News July 2008 edition.

The GPHF Minilab® took a public turn this November when it was presented at an international expert conference on "Strategies against Counterfeit Medicines" in Wurzburg, Germany. The event, organised by Concept Heidelberg, Wurzburg University and the German Pharmaceutical Society, once again emphasised that the phenomenon of counterfeit medicines proliferation can only be solved through joint multinational efforts by all stakeholders.

The French press agency AFP has reported that last month authorities from China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand performed 200 raids during which 27 persons have been arrested and counterfeit drugs (antimicrobials, antimalarials etc.) worth about a seven million USD have been confiscated.

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Global Pharma Health Fund e.V. (GPHF)
Walther-von-Cronberg-Platz 6
60594 Frankfurt, Germany
Phone: +49-69-962387-600
Fax: +49-69-962387-609
info@gphf.org, www.gphf.org

The Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF) is a charitable organisation initiated and exclusively funded by donations from Merck, Darmstadt · Germany

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