The Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) program helps countries apply tools and safeguards that keep poor-quality pharmaceutical and medical products out of local markets and communities.
Challenge
In many low- and middle-income countries, pharmaceutical and medical products often undergo long, varied, and complex distribution channels, and extreme storage and market conditions. At every step, quality must be diligently checked. When this does not happen, falsified, substandard, and unapproved medical products can flourish in supply chains and local markets, posing threats to patients, health systems, and programs that rely on receiving products with lifesaving, therapeutic effects.
Approach
PQM collaborates with country authorities to develop and apply science-based, cost-effective, and customized solutions for testing and monitoring the quality of pharmaceutical and medical products currently in circulation in their markets. Through this work, countries develop sustainable approaches to post-marketing surveillance, which enables effective medicines regulation and enforcement. As a result of these efforts, our in-country partners strengthen quality assurance and quality control aspects of health systems. This ultimately prevents negative health outcomes associated with patient exposures to poor-quality medicines in their communities.
This approach makes it easier for country authorities to:
- Screen and test the quality of pharmaceutical and medical products for use in health programs.
- Monitor quality and conduct post-marketing surveillance of products in circulation and distributed through public and private health sector channels.
- Acquire and apply quality assurance tools and strategies, enforce laws and regulations, and take action against poor-quality products.
Areas of Technical Support & Training
- Quality control systems strengthening
- Field-based screening technologies
- Post-marketing surveillance
- Product quality assessment
- Medicines quality data
- Medicines regulation