The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) is set to introduce new approach to post-market surveillance which will be deployed across the country. The program which is code named ‘Promoting the Quality of Medicines’ (PQM+), aims at strengthening quality of medical products and assurance.
The FDA according to the Chief Executive Officer Mrs. Delese A. A. Darko, will work with other stakeholders and regulatory agencies to ensure quality supply of essential medical products through capacity building of local manufacturers towards attaining the World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification and Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) criteria.
Explaining further, she said one of the objectives of the PQM+ is to help improve the capacity of FDA in order to extensively conduct post market surveillance by introducing a new risk-based approach which requires the participation of diverse groups that play a critical role in the quality assurance of medicines from the manufacturers to the retailers.
She also noted that,another goal the project seeks to achieve, is to support and assess the level of progress of three selected local manufacturers of Artemether/Lumefantrine and improve on the quality of oxytocin and iron + folic acid supplement on the Ghanaian market.
Mrs. Delese Darko encouraged members of the working group to seize the opportunity to build their capacity in the management of the quality of health products marketed in Ghana and contribute their quota to fight against substandard and falsified medicines.
On her part, the Deputy Chief Executive (DCE), Technical Operations Division, Mrs. Akua Amartey said the adoption of the new approach to Post-Market Surveillance is key to ensuring quality medical products on the market. She pledged the support of the FDA and lauded the efforts by the stakeholders to implement the new approach.
