Technologies to Tackle Substandard & Falsified Medical Products in Global Health

9 - 11 November

1400 - 1600 (GMT)

Online (Zoom & GPX)

Welcome!

What is the event about?

The problem of poor-quality medicines and medical devices represents a global public health emergency – and one that is not showing signs of abating. Although it is impossible to gain accurate estimates of the scale of the issue, experts gauge that 10% to 30% of medical products in global circulation are either falsified or substandard. In recent years, a proliferation of new technologies have sought to tackle this problem - from sophisticated end-to-end blockchain solutions, to simple text messaging services for patients.

Although these innovations are widely implemented (and may impact clinical decisions, health policies, and create opportunities for quantifiable research) the options available, and their role in decision-making, is still somewhat confusing. This event seeks to bring together innovators, researchers, and those with an interest in medical product quality to explore the landscape of technologies that are used to tackle substandard and falsified medical products.

What's On?

Networking

Forum

Delegate Map

Chats

Gallery of Submissions

See below

Talks

9 - 11 November

1400 - 1600 (UK/GMT)

Zoom (link below)

Networking

Forum

Meet and chat with other delegates on the event's group forum.

Click the button to view (membership required to contribute, but not to view.)

Forum

Delegate Map

Meet your co-delegates via our interactive map!

1. Click on the Map me! button below to add yourself.

2. Select your location e.g. "Nairobi", or drag the pin.

3. Write a short message of introduction e.g. name, role, and professional interests.

4. Optional: you could add a link (we suggest your LinkedIn profile) or a photo.

5. Publish! (You can return to your pin to edit or delete it at any time.)

Map me!

https://padlet.com/kenright10/nf3s2wsdz6wpzi2b

Gallery of Submissions

View

Submissions will be available to view from 1445 (UK / GMT) on Tuesday 9 November 2021.

Please interact with the submissions (and their authors) using the comments function. Show your appreciation for a submission using the 'like' / heart button.

لم يتم نشر أي منشورات بهذه اللغة حتى الآن

انتظرونا...

"There are no fake sex enhancers"Dr Ushehwedu Kufakurinani

00:00 / 06:08

Talks

Webinars will be held on

9, 10 & 11 November 2021 via Zoom.

They will commence at 1400 (UK / GMT).

Scroll down to view the speakers' bios.

Join webinar

Prof Muhammad Zaman

University of Boston

Is there a 'technological fix' to the problem of SF medical products?

9 Nov 2021 ~ 1400 - 1600hrs (UK)

Dr Harparkash Kaur

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Field-friendly methods for screening and detecting SF
medical products

10 Nov 2021 ~ 1400 - 1600hrs (UK)

Michael Deats

Formerly of WHO & MHRA

Connecting the Dots: information exchange to tackle SF
medical products

11 Nov 2021 ~ 1400 - 1600hrs (UK)

Dr Celine Caillet

University of Oxford

Portable Screening Devices for post marketing surveillance of medicines quality in the Lao PDR

9 Nov 2021 ~ 1400 - 1600hrs (UK)

Prof Dr Lutz Heide & Gesa Gnegel

Tuebingen University

Implementing detection technologies in low-resource settings

10 Nov 2021 ~ 1400 - 1600hrs (UK)

Rutendo Kawana

WHO & ZimHealth

Balancing act: safeguarding quality & maximising accessibility as a national regulator

11 Nov 2021 ~ 1400 - 1600hrs (UK)

Recordings

All webinars will be recorded. If you do not wish to be recorded, please switch off your microphone and camera, and ask any questions via the chat function.

Although all of the talks will be recorded, they may not be available for future viewing. This is dependent on the consent of those recorded and on GDPR considerations. Therefore, if you wish to hear the talks, please attend the talks, to avoid disappointment.

Bios of Speakers

Meet the speakers

Click to expand. Use the side arrows to navigate between speakers.

Prof Muhammad Zaman, University of Boston

Professor Zaman’s research focuses on understanding the systems biology of tumour invasion and metastasis. The second main thrust of his research focuses on developing computational and experimental tools to improve the quality of life, education, and the practice of medicine in the developing world. He is working closely with institutions of higher learning in curriculum development and implementation. In addition, he partners with various non-profits around the globe, in particular with the developing countries, to develop cheap, robust, and easy-to-use solutions to develop improved diagnostics in remote areas.

Dr Céline Caillet, Deputy Head of Medicine Quality Research Group

Dr Céline Caillet is the Deputy Head of the Medicine Quality Research Group (MQRG) of the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory, MORU Tropical Health Network and the Center for Tropical Medicine and Global Health of the University of Oxford. She is a pharmacist and former resident of the Hospital of Toulouse. Following her MSc in Epidemiology and Public Health in Bordeaux, France, Céline completed her PhD in drug safety in Laos. Before joining the MQRG team, she did research on drug safety at the Regional Center of Pharmacovigilance of Toulouse, France. She also taught pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine of Toulouse, and during her PhD in the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Health Sciences, Vientiane. She joined the MQRG team in 2015 in Laos and is now based in Oxford, UK. She is particularly interested in the epidemiology of substandard and falsified medicines and testing the performances of screening technologies for early detection of substandard and falsified medicines.

Dr Harparkash Kaur, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. [image unavailable]

Dr Kaur is a chemist by training. She is a lecturer in pharmacology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and is the lead investigator of the drug quality project within the artemisinin combination therapy consortium.

She gained both her BSc with honours and PhD in chemistry from the University of London and has since spent over 20 years devising HPLC (that’s high performance liquid chromatography) based methods, applicable to varying fields of research, by determining the levels of free radicals in disease state and levels of endogenous antioxidants.

Lately her work has involved developing and validating HPLC and simple chemical methods to test the quality, as well as the levels, of drugs in patient samples and by measuring the levels of insecticides on treated nets, which are used as a major mode of intervention in the fight against malaria.

The field-friendly methods that she has devised for the detection of artemisinin derivatives and for the detection of insecticides are the subject of separate patent applications by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The focus of her work now is determining the quality of drugs, levels of antimalarial drugs on filter paper adsorbed blood samples, and in determining the amounts of insecticides on bed nets from a number of trials ongoing and planned in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Prof Dr Lutz Heide, University of Tuebingen

Prof. Dr. Lutz Heide (* 1955) studied pharmacy at the University of Münster. After receiving his doctorate, he worked for three years in the Ministry of Health of Somalia, where he managed the supply of essential medicines for primary health care in refugee camps. After a postdoctoral period at the University of Kyoto, Japan, he became an assistant and then an associate professor at the Pharmaceutical Institutes of the Universities of Bonn and Freiburg. Since 1994, he has been a full professor at the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Tübingen. On leave from this university and under a contract with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ/CIM), he worked for two years (2014/2015) at the Pharmaceutical Institute of the University of Malawi. There he taught Drug & Medical Supplies Management and carried out research on the quality of essential medicines in Malawi. Since 2016 he has been responsible at the University of Tübingen for research and teaching in the field of Pharmaceutical Global Health. Specifically, he investigates the problems of substandard and falsified medicines drugs, the availability and pricing of medicines as well as the challenges of health supply chain management in low- and middle-income countries.

Gesa Gnegel, University of Tuebingen

Licensed pharmacist.

Gesa Gnegel studied pharmacy at the Albert-Ludwigs-University, Freiburg, and the University of Costa Rica, San José. In a research semester in Costa Rica she investigated natural compounds of a local medical plant, Casearia sylvestris. During her internship year she worked for the German medical aid organization action medeor e.V. as well as in the pharmacy Linner Apotheke. She obtained her license as a pharmacist (Approbation) in November 2018. After working at the German Institute for Medical Mission (Difäm) for half a year, she started her PhD project at Tübingen University in July 2019 under a scholarship from the Cusanuswerk, still keeping links to the Department for Pharmaceutical Development Cooperation of Difäm. The aim of her PhD project is to improve our knowledge about the quality of medicines in African countries, in close cooperation with local partner organizations.

Michael Deats, Formerly of WHO & MHRA

Michael Deats became an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in tropical medicine with the Medicine Quality Research Group of IDDO in 2020.

His areas of research encompass medicine quality, improving regulatory oversight and the prevention, detection and response to substandard and falsified medical products.

Prior to that he headed the WHO global programme, and established the global surveillance and monitoring system, for substandard and falsified medical products (2011-2019).

Michael was the head of enforcement at the Medicine and Healthcare Product Regulatory Agency (2006-2011), he was the author of the first MHRA falsified medicine and enforcement strategies and led the investigation into the largest case of falsified medicines in Europe (2007-10). Michael was the originator of Operation Pangea tackling the illegal online supply of medicine, an operation now in its 12th year, involving over 100 Countries and led by INTERPOL.

Michael was a Police Officer for 30 years (1975-2005) specialising in serious and organised crime, and cybercrime, retiring in the rank of Detective Superintendent.

He has worked in over 60 countries.

Mr Rutendo Kuwana World Health Organization

Rutendo is leading the Incidents and Substandard/Falsified (ISF) medical products team at the World Health Organization (WHO) since June 2021. The ISF team is part of the Regulation and Safety (REG) Unit of the Regulation and Prequalification (RPQ) department that is within the Access to Medicines and Health Products (MHP) division. He has been based at the WHO HQ in Geneva, Switzerland since January 2009.

Since joining WHO he has held various roles including being responsible for the initiation, coordination and conduct of activities related to prequalification of medicines quality control laboratories in priority regions and countries. He was also involved in provision of technical assistance and capacity building for quality control laboratories, medicine manufacturers and national medicines regulatory authorities. In his current role he supports country oversight and capacity to prevent, detect and respond to substandard and falsified medical products.

He has experience in review of quality data for medicines submitted for prequalification with WHO and technical assistance to applicants/manufacturers and National Regulatory Authorities on Good Manufacturing Practice, marketing authorization of medicines, quality assurance and risk-based post market quality surveillance.

Before joining WHO, Rutendo spent 15 years with the national Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe. Rutendo qualified as a pharmacist from the University of Zimbabwe and specializes in medical product regulatory control.

Acknowledgements

Thanks

This event was organised by Kate Enright.

I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to the following people for their support and advice (in no particular order) without whom the event could not have taken place:

Each of the speakers. The time required to prepare and deliver a talk is often taken for granted - many thanks for your time and enthusiasm!
Associate Professor Patricia Kingori, for inspiring and encouraging the event.
Prof Paul Newton, for connecting me with such a wonderful set of speakers.
Prof Dr Lutz Heide, for advising on the design and content.
Dr Fiona Groenhout, for your endless technical, administrative, and moral support.
Dr Halina Suwalowska, for her advice and enthusiasm.
The Ethox Centre & the Wellcome Centre for Ethics & Humanities, for their support in running and advertising the event.
The Wellcome Trust, for their sponsorship of my research under the "Fakes, Fabrications, & Falsehoods in Global Health" project. Click HERE to learn more about what we do.
Finally, to all those who contributed to the event via submissions, questions, or discussion. Your engagement enhanced everyone's experience and is greatly appreciated.

Technologies to Tackle Substandard & Falsified Medical Products in Global Health

Welcome!

Networking

Gallery of Submissions

Talks

Networking

Gallery of Submissions

Talks

Is there a 'technological fix' to the problem of SF medical products?

Field-friendly methods for screening and detecting SF medical products

Connecting the Dots: information exchange to tackle SF medical products

Portable Screening Devices for post marketing surveillance of medicines quality in the Lao PDR

Implementing detection technologies in low-resource settings

Balancing act: safeguarding quality & maximising accessibility as a national regulator

Bios of Speakers

Acknowledgements

Field-friendly methods for screening and detecting SF
medical products

Connecting the Dots: information exchange to tackle SF
medical products