Technologies to Tackle Substandard & Falsified Medical Products in Global Health

9 - 11 November 2021

This event is now closed. However, please do enjoy the submissions and webinar recordings below. We look forward to seeing you at our 2022 event! Join our membership to stay in the loop.

Background

The problem of poor-quality medicines and medical devices represents a global public health emergency – and one that is not showing signs of abating. Although it is impossible to gain accurate estimates of the scale of the issue, experts gauge that 10% to 30% of medical products in global circulation are either falsified or substandard. In recent years, a proliferation of new technologies have sought to tackle this problem - from sophisticated end-to-end blockchain solutions, to simple text messaging services for patients.

Although these innovations are widely implemented (and may impact clinical decisions, health policies, and create opportunities for quantifiable research) the options available, and their role in decision-making, is still somewhat confusing. This event seeks to bring together innovators, researchers, and those with an interest in medical product quality to explore the landscape of technologies that are used to tackle substandard and falsified medical products.

Talks

This channel is coming soon!

Bios of Speakers

bios

Meet the speakers

Click to expand. Use the side arrows to navigate between speakers.

Prof Muhammad Zaman, University of Boston

Professor Zaman’s research focuses on understanding the systems biology of tumour invasion and metastasis. The second main thrust of his research focuses on developing computational and experimental tools to improve the quality of life, education, and the practice of medicine in the developing world. He is working closely with institutions of higher learning in curriculum development and implementation. In addition, he partners with various non-profits around the globe, in particular with the developing countries, to develop cheap, robust, and easy-to-use solutions to develop improved diagnostics in remote areas.

Dr Céline Caillet, Deputy Head of Medicine Quality Research Group

Dr Céline Caillet is the Deputy Head of the Medicine Quality Research Group (MQRG) of the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory, MORU Tropical Health Network and the Center for Tropical Medicine and Global Health of the University of Oxford. She is a pharmacist and former resident of the Hospital of Toulouse. Following her MSc in Epidemiology and Public Health in Bordeaux, France, Céline completed her PhD in drug safety in Laos. Before joining the MQRG team, she did research on drug safety at the Regional Center of Pharmacovigilance of Toulouse, France. She also taught pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine of Toulouse, and during her PhD in the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Health Sciences, Vientiane. She joined the MQRG team in 2015 in Laos and is now based in Oxford, UK. She is particularly interested in the epidemiology of substandard and falsified medicines and testing the performances of screening technologies for early detection of substandard and falsified medicines.

Dr Harparkash Kaur, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. [image unavailable]

Dr Kaur is a chemist by training. She is a lecturer in pharmacology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and is the lead investigator of the drug quality project within the artemisinin combination therapy consortium.

She gained both her BSc with honours and PhD in chemistry from the University of London and has since spent over 20 years devising HPLC (that’s high performance liquid chromatography) based methods, applicable to varying fields of research, by determining the levels of free radicals in disease state and levels of endogenous antioxidants.

Lately her work has involved developing and validating HPLC and simple chemical methods to test the quality, as well as the levels, of drugs in patient samples and by measuring the levels of insecticides on treated nets, which are used as a major mode of intervention in the fight against malaria.

The field-friendly methods that she has devised for the detection of artemisinin derivatives and for the detection of insecticides are the subject of separate patent applications by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The focus of her work now is determining the quality of drugs, levels of antimalarial drugs on filter paper adsorbed blood samples, and in determining the amounts of insecticides on bed nets from a number of trials ongoing and planned in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Prof Dr Lutz Heide, University of Tuebingen

Prof. Dr. Lutz Heide (* 1955) studied pharmacy at the University of Münster. After receiving his doctorate, he worked for three years in the Ministry of Health of Somalia, where he managed the supply of essential medicines for primary health care in refugee camps. After a postdoctoral period at the University of Kyoto, Japan, he became an assistant and then an associate professor at the Pharmaceutical Institutes of the Universities of Bonn and Freiburg. Since 1994, he has been a full professor at the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Tübingen. On leave from this university and under a contract with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ/CIM), he worked for two years (2014/2015) at the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Malawi. There he taught Drug & Medical Supplies Management and carried out research on the quality of essential medicines in Malawi. Since 2016 he has been responsible at the University of Tübingen for research and teaching in the field of Pharmaceutical Global Health. Specifically, he investigates the problems of substandard and falsified medicines drugs, the availability and pricing of medicines as well as the challenges of health supply chain management in low- and middle-income countries.

Gesa Gnegel, University of Tuebingen

Licensed pharmacist.

Gesa Gnegel studied pharmacy at the Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, and the University of Costa Rica, San José. In a research semester in Costa Rica she investigated natural compounds of a local medical plant, Casearia sylvestris. During her internship year she worked for the German medical aid organization action medeor e.V. as well as in the pharmacy Linner Apotheke. She obtained her license as a pharmacist (Approbation) in November 2018. After working at the German Institute for Medical Mission (Difäm) for half a year, she started her PhD project at Tübingen University in July 2019 under a scholarship from the Cusanuswerk, still keeping links to the Department for Pharmaceutical Development Cooperation of Difäm. The aim of her PhD project is to improve our knowledge about the quality of medicines in African countries, in close cooperation with local partner organizations.

Michael Deats, Formerly of WHO & MHRA

Michael Deats became an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in tropical medicine with the Medicine Quality Research Group of IDDO in 2020.

His areas of research encompass medicine quality, improving regulatory oversight and the prevention, detection and response to substandard and falsified medical products.

Prior to that he headed the WHO global programme, and established the global surveillance and monitoring system, for substandard and falsified medical products (2011-2019).

Michael was the head of enforcement at the Medicine and Healthcare Product Regulatory Agency (2006-2011), he was the author of the first MHRA falsified medicine and enforcement strategies and led the investigation into the largest case of falsified medicines in Europe (2007-10). Michael was the originator of Operation Pangea tackling the illegal online supply of medicine, an operation now in its 12th year, involving over 100 Countries and led by INTERPOL.

Michael was a Police Officer for 30 years (1975-2005) specialising in serious and organised crime, and cybercrime, retiring in the rank of Detective Superintendent.

He has worked in over 60 countries.

Mr Rutendo Kuwana World Health Organization

Rutendo is leading the Incidents and Substandard/Falsified (ISF) medical products team at the World Health Organization (WHO) since June 2021. The ISF team is part of the Regulation and Safety (REG) Unit of the Regulation and Prequalification (RPQ) department that is within the Access to Medicines and Health Products (MHP) division. He has been based at the WHO HQ in Geneva, Switzerland since January 2009.

Since joining WHO he has held various roles including being responsible for the initiation, coordination and conduct of activities related to prequalification of medicines quality control laboratories in priority regions and countries. He was also involved in provision of technical assistance and capacity building for quality control laboratories, medicine manufacturers and national medicines regulatory authorities. In his current role he supports country oversight and capacity to prevent, detect and respond to substandard and falsified medical products.

He has experience in review of quality data for medicines submitted for prequalification with WHO and technical assistance to applicants/manufacturers and National Regulatory Authorities on Good Manufacturing Practice, marketing authorization of medicines, quality assurance and risk-based post market quality surveillance.

Before joining WHO, Rutendo spent 15 years with the national Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe. Rutendo qualified as a pharmacist from the University of Zimbabwe and specializes in medical product regulatory control.

Gallery of Submissions

Substandard quality of Hyaluronic acid as a surgical aid in ophthalmology

Multivariate models applied to Pharmaceutical NIR spectroscopic data

Photo Story: Peddling of SF Medical Products

Prevalence of Substandard and Falsified Drugs in Africa

“There are no fake sex enhancers!”: Trade and Consumption of Sex enhancers in Harare’s Avenues

Pitch: AntTail - a Virtual Vault for your Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Curriculum for Pharmacy Students on Substandard and Falsified Medicines

Saving vaccines with Bluetooth temperature tracking innovation

Pitch: Using blockchain to tackle counterfeit medicines

Documentary: Substandard and Falsified Medicines in SE Asia (22 minutes)

Submissions will be published HERE at 1445 hrs (UK) on Tuesday 9 November 2021!

"There are no fake sex enhancers"Dr Ushehwedu Kufakurinani

00:00 / 06:08

Acknowledgements

Thanks

This event was organised by Kate Enright.

I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to the following people for their support

and advice, without whom the event could not have taken place:

Each of the speakers. The time required to prepare and deliver a talk is often taken for granted - many thanks for your time and enthusiasm!
Associate Professor Patricia Kingori, for inspiring and encouraging the event.
Prof Paul Newton, for connecting me with such a wonderful set of speakers.
Prof Dr Lutz Heide, for advising on the design and content.
Dr Fiona Groenhout, for your endless technical, administrative, and moral support.
Dr Halina Suwalowska, for her advice and enthusiasm.
The Ethox Centre & the Wellcome Centre for Ethics & Humanities, for their support in running and advertising the event.
The Wellcome Trust, for their sponsorship of my research under the "Fakes, Fabrications, & Falsehoods in Global Health" project. Click HERE to learn more about what we do.
Finally, to all those who contributed to the event via submissions, questions, or discussion. Your engagement enhanced everyone's experience and is greatly appreciated.