Substandard and Falsified Medicines (WHO)
The presence of Substandard and Falsified (SF) medical products in countries, and their use by patients, impacts our ability to effectively tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We need to investigate this use both to understand the true scale of AMR as well as how much SF medicines may be contributing to the growing resistance.
The Fleming Fund is supporting the World Health Organizations (WHOs) work on the prevention, detection and response to SF antibiotics in Africa and South and South East Asia. WHO’s work aims to decrease the risks of SF medical products contributing to AMR, particularly in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).
World Health Organization (WHO)
4 years (April 2018 - March 2022)
£4m
All countries will be supported to use the Global Surveillance and Monitoring System (GSMS). So far the following countries have been prioritised for the quality surveys: Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Malawi, Bangladesh.
Objectives
- to support a deeper understanding of SF antimicrobials and their impact upon AMR trends
- to strengthen national post-market surveillance capacity for high-risk antimicrobial medical products in selected LMICs
- to improve reporting of SF antimicrobial medical products from countries to regional and global systems
- to improve global data analysis on the scope, scale and harm caused by SF antimicrobial medical products
Activities
- upgrading the WHO global surveillance and monitoring system (GSMS) to ensure it remains fit for purpose and is enhanced to support countries to effectively report and access information on SF medical products around the world
- conducting market surveys in 16 Member States (12 African and 4 South East Asian) focusing on the quality of antimicrobials, including antibiotics on the Essential Medicines List
- assessment and procurement of handheld field screening equipment and the establishment of laboratory networks to test these devices. This work will complement FIND’s evaluation of field-based screening technologies supported by the Fleming Fund
- development of a smartphone reporting application to be used by Health Care Professionals to report suspicious medicines, vaccines and medical devices to the regulatory authority in under 60 seconds through the submission of photographs and minimal information