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Aid, Development cooperation, Fundamental rights
International Partnerships

Medisafe: A model for fighting against falsified and substandard medicines in Eastern and Central Africa

Objectives

Falsified and substandard medicines are a major threat to public health in Africa (Council of Europe) with the World Health Organization estimating that 1 in 10 medical products is falsified or substandard in developing countries.

The project's goals are to support the fight against the production and trafficking of substandard and falsified medicines in 11 countries in Eastern and Central Africa with a three-level approach in prevention, detection and response.

When the project launched in 2018, it set out to: 

  • built competencies in the legal, law enforcement and pharmaceutical sectors; 
  • strengthen their policies;
  • promote national and regional cooperation.

Results

Medisafe
© Medisafe

After six years, 96% of the initial objectives were achieved.

One pressing need was to help countries strengthen their legal frameworks. To support this, the consortium produced five key documents:

  1. 'Supply Chain Security', created with the collaboration of 11 pharmaceutical experts and pharmaceutical regulatory authorities in target countries as well as the World Health Organization (WHO);
  2. The 'Reference Manual on Legislation on Substandard and Falsified Medical Products', written in collaboration with the African Union (AU) and the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for African Development (AUDA-NEPAD);
  3. Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on law reinforcement, sector and council for Interpol;
  4. Outline of 11 National Action Plans with recommendations and suggestions on legal law enforcement, pharmaceutical, and awareness raising aspects in each country;
  5. Communication Strategy in the fight against falsified and substandard medicines.

Additional project highlights include:

  1. Creating for each of the 11 target countries:
    • an outline on national action plan with recommendations,
    • a factsheet on legal, pharmaceutical and law enforcement sectors,
    • 4 training curricula on notification and controls of falsified medicines.
  2. Running an outreach campaign in Kenya that sent 180 000 SMS to law enforcement, healthcare professional and the general population to raise awareness on falsified medicines.
  3. Finally, the Council of Europe was invited for 2 workshops, in Burundi and RDC, to apply for membership to the Medicrime Convention.

Lessons from the field

Women and men encounter falsified medicines in different ways.

According to exploratory missions in each intervention country, women are most likely to encounter falsified medicines in street pharmacies. However, according to Interpol, men are more likely to encounter falsified medicines when buying certain medical products, for example for sexual disorders.

Key takeaway: Even though women were the initial target for trainings, it was clear that men should be included in workshops as well.

Communications systems exist between sectors but they are underutilised.

Police and customs officers don’t always communicate with pharmaceutical regulatory agencies regarding falsified medicines or are unaware of notification tools.

While the project initially planned to focus on regional communications channels, more support and training was needed at the national level.

Key takeaway: It’s important to test assumptions and adapt plans based on experience on the ground.

Next steps

Medisafe is developing a second phase of the project, which would:

  • continue working in some of the 11 initial target countries to implement recommendations highlighted during the first phase of the project;
  • expand to West Africa in 2025 using the same model.

Key information

Main accomplishments
  • Publication of high-level documents, in collaboration with legal and pharmaceutical experts
  • Implementation of training for strengthening capacities of the national experts and stakeholders
  • 15 awareness-raising activities with civil society in 11 East and Central African countries with more than 276 national institutions trained and sensitized in the fight against falsified medicines
Countries

Burundi, Demographic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia

Dates

March 2018 – December 2023

Budget

3,9M€

Partners