USP scheme will help African nations improve quality testing

The US Pharmacopeia (USP) has launched a pilot programme to provide five countries in sub-Saharan Africa with greater capacity to test the quality of medicines.

The Technical Assistance Programme (TAP) will supply the countries - Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Sierra Leone - with "a comprehensive package of pharmaceutical reference standards (very pure physical samples used as reference chemicals to test medicines), documentary standards (written specifications) and technical training," according to a USP statement.

Additional countries will join the scheme later if the initial 12-month pilot is successful, it said.

Measures used in the pilot will include the number and variety of drug samples tested; the number of substandard or counterfeit drugs detected; and whether access to quality medicines is improved.

USP and other pharmacopoeias typically sell reference and documentary standards for use by pharmaceutical manufacturers and quality control laboratories. Laboratories with limited resources may have to fall back on outdated, secondary or inadequately documented standards, which in turn may compromise quality testing.

Stephen Opuni CEO of the Ghana Food and Drugs Board, said: "We have worked extensively with USP … to identify and remove substandard and counterfeit drugs from our markets."

"This new USP initiative will help us to test drugs against the most modern and scientifically established standards."