The Minilab Network

WHO report (2017) on “Public health and socioeconomic impact of substandard and falsified medical products” established a failure rate of 10.5% for medicines in low and middle-income countries. The quality of medicines is of major concern, especially in African countries where regulation is still insufficient. Poor-quality medicines directly affect medication safety and have tremendous negative health and socioeconomic effects.

In order to support faith-based Drug Supply Organizations (DSOs) and further partners to assure the quality of medicines, the DIFAM-EPN Minilab project was started in 2010. The aim was to offer a small-scale system, the so-called “Minilab”, developed by the Global Pharma Health Fund (GPHF), to all EPN DSOs that wanted to screen their own products on quality.

The GPHF Minilab provides relatively simple methods on visual inspection, color reaction, disintegration, and especially on thin layer chromatography for qualitative and semi-quantitative detection of currently about 100 pharmaceutical ingredients. According to GPHF, medicines with an API content of 80% or less can be detected, even though in reality sensitivity may be less. There is no need for a fully equipped lab on the ground – the Minilab comes in two suitcases with an additional pallet of all needed chemicals.

Until 2018, 17 “Minilab Network” members in 11 countries screened 4000 samples - of their own supply chain but also from private markets - with the easy-to-use GPHF Minilab -based on thin-layer chromatography. Out of these, 40 products were detected and confirmed as falsified products. Activities of the network have led to increased quality awareness within the faith-based health sectors, and cooperation with local authorities and international partners was enhanced.

To learn more about the Minilab, read the article" Quality of medicines and medication safety – The EPN-DIFAEM MINILAB network" in this publication.