Achieving universal access to affordable medicines and at the same time ensuring the quality of medicines presents a challenge, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
Recently, EPN, through the EPN-Difaem Minilab Network contributed to an article that sought to establish the relationship between medicine prices and medicine quality in three African countries. From different types of health facilities and medicine vendors, 711 samples of 18 different essential medicines were purchased and analyzed for quality (assay and dissolution).
One of the findings of the study was that adequate quality assurance does not necessarily imply an increase in medicine prices.