MEDTIC project: New technologies against counterfeit medicines in Côte d’Ivoire

The accessibility and availability of safe, effective and quality health products for people in Côte d’Ivoire remains a major challenge for the Ivorian authorities, which are engaged in a process to fight against counterfeit medicines. Certain statistics, provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) for example, estimate that these medicines account for up to 30% of certain therapeutic classes of medicines in Côte d’Ivoire. It is therefore necessary to develop, through innovative strategies, an efficient quality assurance system for health products based on traceability, continuous quality control and pharmacovigilance.

Tools to monitor the market and detect counterfeit medicines

To this end, the MEDTIC pilot project integrates new technologies as basic tools to continuously monitor the market and fight against substandard or counterfeit medicines. It pays special attention to anti-malarial, anti-tuberculosis and anti-retroviral drugs, in line with the mandates of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and L’Initiative (formerly the 5% Initiative). Anti-malarial drugs are, moreover, highly prone to falsification.

More specifically, using new technologies, MEDTIC has worked to develop:

• A drug traceability system, Authentimed®, by putting a Datamatrix code on packaging for anti-malarial drugs;

• An e-notification on side effects, Med Safety®, particularly for anti-retroviral, anti-malarial and anti-tuberculosis drugs;

• The quality control of medicines entering the territory to reduce illegal trafficking in counterfeit medicines using a portable IR spectrophotometry technology, Raman®.

Two mobile applications have been selected to facilitate the work of the Ivorian authorities. The Med Safety® application has been developed with the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), the British medicines agency and WHO. It allows doctors and patients to report the side effects of medicines. The Authentimed® application facilitates the authentication and traceability of pharmaceutical products, which secures the distribution channel. Finally, a Raman® spectrophotometer purchased under the project will analyse the qualitative composition of medicines that transit through customs, in particular in ports and airports.

Côte d’Ivoire mobilised in the international fight against counterfeit medicines

The last component of the MEDTIC project on strengthening legal provisions for the fight against counterfeit medicines has supported Côte d’Ivoire’s process for accession to the MEDICRIME Convention. It was enacted with its signing on 3 July 2019 at the headquarters of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg by Dr. Aka Aouele, Minister of Health and Public Hygiene.

Building on this accession, the MEDTIC project is helping set up an intervention brigade for the fight against counterfeit medicines and with the operationalisation of a platform gathering the main stakeholders in the fight. The objective is to make investigations and seizures more effective. These activities are supported by training for professionals.

MEDTIC was initially planned from September 2017 to September 2019 but has been extended by 12 months. The project is led by the New Public Health Pharmacy (New PSP), in consortium with the Ivorian Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority (AIRP), the National Public Health Laboratory (LNSP) and the Pharmaceuticals Department (DAP) in Côte d’Ivoire. It is financed with EUR 0.96m by L'Initiative, the second modality for France’s contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. L’Initiative is a technical assistance facility recognised by its beneficiaries and supervisory administrations.  Since 2011, it has been a key actor in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.   

A final evaluation of these three pilot initiatives will be considered at project completion, with a view to a possible transfer to the Global Fund for additional financing and a broadening of the scope of operations.

This article is taken from the thematic report “Availability, accessibility, quality: Three challenges for medicines in Africa”.