Fake malaria medicines: experts gather in Geneva
9 June 2015
Drug quality specialists discussed prevention and surveillance methods to tackle the risks posed by poor quality medicines. The "Fake antimalarials: Start with the facts" meeting took place on 28 May.
The event, hosted by the ACT Consortium, included the following presentations:
- Introduction (by David Schellenberg, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)
- The importance of drug quality: Setting the scene (by Souly Phanouvong, United States Pharmacopeia)
- Drug quality and antimalarial efficacy - the WWARN perspective (by Phillippe Guérin, University of Oxford
- WHO Surveillance and Monitoring - regulatory perspective (by Michael Deats, World Health Organization)
- Strengthening supply chains to prevent theft & diversion of donor funded ACTs (by Andrew McLoughlin, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria)
- Field tests and laboratory analysis for drug quality assurance (by Ben Wilson (Intellectual Ventures Laboratory) and Harparkash Kaur (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)
- Evaluating the scale of the problem: Sampling considerations for field surveys of drug quality (by Siân Clarke, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)
- Findings from the ACT Consortium drug quality programme in 6 countries (by Harparkash Kaur, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)
- International collaborative work against pharmaceutical crimes (by Aline Plancon, Interpol)
Attendees included representatives from the World Health Organization, international organisations, academic institutions, independent consultancies and pharmaceutical industry.
A full meeting report will be available in due course.
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine hosted an Alumni reception after the event.
If you have any questions about this meeting, please e-mail debora.miranda@lshtm.ac.uk.
Photo: Attendees of the "Fake antimalarials: Start with the facts" meeting at Hotel Metropole, Geneva, Switzerland. Credit: Alice Perry
