On September 14, the 333rd GPHF-Minilab® arrived in Bischkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. The Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA), a British initiative, is now training government health care workers to detect counterfeit medicines using this mini-laboratory developed by the Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF).

Frank Gotthardt, Chairman of the GPHF, said: “We are pleased to see that again another partner organisation provides development assistance by using our Minilabs. Actually, this is the 333rd mobile laboratory and another special milestone. We are continuously working to get more partners on board."

According to information from MeTA, numerous counterfeit medicines are smuggled into the country, which has a population of slightly more than 5 million. The government has hardly been able to stop the influx - partly because of the mountainous terrain, which makes controls difficult. Another reason is the sheer lack of facilities to help distinguish counterfeit from original medicines.

As of January 2010, additional thin layer chromatographic tests will be added to the 41 existing test protocols. This means that more than 50 drug compounds can then be tested using the GPHF-Minilab®. The development work was co-financed by the U.S. partner organisations USAID and USP and includes active ingredients for the treatment of tuberculosis and malaria, among others. The new supplementary manual will be published in English, French and Spanish.

Pharmacists from East Timor, Norway, France and the United Kingdom attended the GPHF-Minilab® training courses that took place in July and September. As in the previous year, Dr. Richard Jähnke, GPHF project manager, held the three to five-day courses at the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Frankfurt.


Dr. Richard Jähnke (center) with two of the 2009 summer school participants.

The summer school will be repeated in 2010. Details and registration information are available from Dr. Jähnke by calling 0049-69-46939-662 or by sending an e-mail to richard.jaehnke@gphf.org.

To provide better protection against counterfeit medicines, the Global Pharma Health Fund donated two mini-laboratories to the Gambia Health Alliance for drug quality monitoring in Gambia. To ensure optimum use of the Minilab, pharmacists and technicians from the National Pharmaceutical Services will be trained by GPHF project manager Dr. Richard Jähnke in October, who will also support them in performing initial tests.

The Gambia Health Alliance (GHA) is a consortium of public health services, non-governmental organisations and private companies. It is their objective to support the Gambian health services in their pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. GHA is the first private initiative of this kind in Africa and was founded in September 2008 under the leadership of International Health Partners (IHP) and the Gambian ministry of health. To date, IHP has donated medicines worth well over EUR 1 million. In the overall development context, the Global Pharma Health Fund provides the means for basic drug quality control, rapid counterfeit medicines detection and immediate patient protection.

An article in a science journal for German school teachers is scheduled for publication next month. By presenting the topic of counterfeit medicines and ways to detect them, the GPHF wants to offer some ideas to make classroom instruction more practice-relevant. Short test demonstrations will proof the potential benefits when using GPHF-Minilab manuals on colour reactions and thin layer chromatography in chemistry classes.

Together with the University of Frankfurt and the malaria project of Oil Search (PNG) Ltd., the Global Pharma Health Fund is supporting a study assessing the situation on counterfeit antimalarial medicines proliferation in Papua New Guinea. The national medical stores and the school of medicine of PNG University are conducting the study. A pharmacist from PNG University will also come to Frankfurt and subject medicines of borderline quality to more sophisticated pharmacopoeial quality tests. The results of the study are expected by mid-2010.

July: Counterfeit malaria drug Coartem® detected in Ghana contained absolutely no medicinal substances
Global implementation of artemisinine-based antimalarial combination therapy, as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), enhances counterfeiting activities accordingly. In July, the technical assistance programme of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP DQI) submitted samples of counterfeit Coartem® lacking all active ingredients to the authorities of Ghana. Within its Medicines Quality Monitoring program, USP DQI maintains five sentinel sites in this West African country. Since the Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF) supplied its mini-laboratories to these sites in January this year, patients nearby now have access to a quick quality check of non-effective antimalarials locally. Here, suspicious samples can be processed on neutral ground thus bypassing local conflicts of interest.

August: West Africa is a victim of and hub for counterfeit medicines
An assessment of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna from July this year now puts the dangers of trade in counterfeit medicines next to the dangers of illegal trade in narcotic drugs, weapons, toxic waste, cigarettes, oil and work force and takes them as a serious threat for countries in the West Africa region and the rest of the world. Lacking laws or poor enforcement of existing legislation are making the trade in counterfeit medicines much easier here in Africa. The majority of people stay completely unprotected against this immense threat to health and life.

September: Uganda infiltrated by counterfeit drugs
Tons of counterfeit antimalarials and antibacterials containing wrong or no active ingredients were destroyed in the east African nation of Uganda subsequent to a systematic sweep of the pharmaceutical market by Interpol together with the local health authorities and IMPACT, the international medical products anti-counterfeiting taskforce steered by WHO. Among the drugs seized were chloroquine, quinine, amodiaquine, sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine, cotrimoxazole und chloramphenicol – all of them life-saving medicines if not counterfeited and of substandard quality. This concerns also faith-based drug supply where cases of spurious quinine preparations have been detected with the GPHF-Minilab earlier this year.

On July 6, 2009. Dr. Jürgen Knackmuss stepped down as Chairman of the GPHF. The new Chairman is Frank Gotthardt.

Also, the postal address of the GPHF head office has changed. The new address is:

Global Pharma Health Fund e.V. (GPHF)
Otto-Messmer-Strasse 1
60314 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
Telephone: 0049-69-962387-600
Telefax: 0049-69-962387-609
e-mail: info@gphf.org

The Global Pharma Health Fund thanks the company Merck of Darmstadt, Germany, for its donation this year.

Published by:
Global Pharma Health Fund e.V. (GPHF)
Otto-Messmer-Strasse 1
60314 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
Telephone: 0049-69-962387-600
Telefax: 0049-69-962387-609
e-mail: info@gphf.org
Website: www.gphf.org

The Global Pharma Health Fund e.V. (GPHF) is a charitable organisation initiated and maintained by Merck, Darmstadt • Germany

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