Dear Madam, Dear Sir,
the Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF) is pleased to announce the release of more test protocols for its Minilab, a self-contained mini-laboratory for rapid drug quality verification and easy detection of falsified and poor quality medicines where the contents are different, much higher or lower than indicated.
Minilab users in the health and medicines supply chains of Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific may clearly benefit from this performance improvement, for example the identification and content verification of the anti-TB compound kanamycin in powder for injections and clavulanic acid in amoxicillin FDC tablets. Appropriate reference standards are supplied. Electronic pocket balances introduced newly will ease operation further. Beyond this, the Minilab’s technical platform stays unchanged since its establishment fifteen years ago.
The latest Minilab supplement is published jointly with the Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) programme maintained by the US Pharmacopeia (USP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Demo versions can be accessed in English, French and Spanish at the GPHF-Homepage. Printed copies can be obtained through our logistic partner Technology Transfer Marburg (TTM).
The number of Minilabs supplied approaches 600 units based in 80 countries of 5 continents. Here, they help developing nations in boosting their medicines testing capacity. Current focus is on five key therapeutic segments: antibiotics, anti-TB drugs, antimalarials, ARVs and medicines for NTDs. It comes with all the lab equipment, reagents, reference standards and protocols needed to perform non-sophisticated, affordable tests at the point of screening with minimal training.
To increase the Minilab’s range of applications even further, the GPHF will go on to invest more in test method development for essential drugs and other prevailing medicines. Spurious medicines threaten the lives of millions of people around the world. The GPHF is working to prevent falsified medicines reaching the patients in developing countries. Minilabs save lives.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Jähnke, PhD
Project Management
GPHF-Minilab now capable of testing over 60 actives used in a plethora of medicines
Global Pharma Health Fund e.V. (GPHF) |