Rehabilitation of the LNCQM

BACKGROUND

Many sources report that counterfeit medicines represent 10% of the world’s pharmaceutical market, 25% of the market in developing countries… and up to 60% in Guinea. An unprecedented phenomenon, but one already long in existence in 2005 when Fondation Pierre Fabre decided to support rehabilitation of the national drug quality control laboratory (LNCQM) in Conakry.

This programme, implemented using the methodology applied in Benin, was founded on cooperation between the LNCQMs of sub-Saharan Africa to better curtail the rise in counterfeits in the region. It preceded and paved the way to the broader increase in awareness of this problem and the desire to act on an international level that led to the Cotonou Declaration in 2009.

Together with the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene of the Republic of Guinea, Fondation Pierre Fabre became involved in training managers and all staff in pharmaceutical analysis techniques. With volunteers from the Pierre Fabre Laboratories specialising in quality assurance, it also helped the laboratory draft new policies and procedures and establish an effective documentation system. Lastly, it financed equipment and reagents essential to basic physicochemical analysis (doses, identification of active ingredients, etc.). This first phase is now complete.