From minor ailments to critical illnesses, patients and medical professionals rely on medicines for treatment and/or management. The Caribbean now has a Division dedicated to regulation through risk-based monitoring of the quality medicines circulating in the CARICOM market.
Speaking at the opening of a Post-Market Surveillance and the Caribbean Pharmaceutical Policy meeting hosted by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), from March 12 – 13, in Kingston, Jamaica, where the agency is based, the Medicines Quality Control and Surveillance Department (MQSD), formerly the CARPHA Drug Testing Laboratory, was described as a key component in establishing regional confidence, by Dr. Virginia Asin-Oostburg, CARPHA’s Director, Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control.
The CARPHA MQCSD, is the only accredited medicines quality control laboratory in the English-speaking Caribbean and has been strengthened by its collaboration with PAHO/WHO. Speaking during the meeting, Jesse Schutt-Aine, Sub-regional Program Coordinator, Caribbean, PAHO/WHO, placed on record PAHO’s pleasure in collaborating with CARICOM and CARPHA and Member States on this initiative.
“Strong regulatory systems are the foundation for strong health systems. A strong health system is what’s needed for universal health, and universal health is essential for the attainment of the sustainable development goals. PAHO has been working on these issues for many years supporting the development of the Caribbean Pharmaceutical Policy, as well as a roadmap for a regional regulatory platform,” she explained. “We know from PAHO data that post market surveillance is one of the most limited functions in the small states of CARICOM, so strengthening oversight in this area will be a major boost to the quality of the medicines that Caribbean people use”.
Jamaica’s Minster of Health, Christopher Tufton, noted that the importance of the existence of CARPHA’s MQCSD, should not be overstated. “It is to the MQCSD that we now look to implement a Post Marketing Surveillance strategy, that is, among other things, to provide test results that confirm the good quality of medicines or otherwise identify problems with them; and provide test results that give the opportunity for national medicines regulatory authorities to evaluate and make decisions on the actual quality of products used in country.”
The objective of the meeting was to sensitise CARICOM’s Technical Advisory Committee on Pharmaceutical Policy and Caribbean Regulatory Systems focal points on MQCSD’s post market surveillance programme in the direction of strengthened regional integration and sustainability. The MQCSD initiative complements VigiCarib, a part of the CARPHA and PAHO-supported Caribbean Regulatory System for health providers, patients and governments to report adverse events and substandard and falsified medicines. VigiCarib helps to identify risky products in the market that can inform MQCSD’s surveillance strategy. Medicinal quality is fundamental to the preservation of public health and is aligned with CARICOM’s strategic priority to advance initiatives for health and wellness improvement in the Caribbean.
