Chronicle Editor
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
ZIMBABWE and South Africa’s medical control authorities have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will see them engaging in joint review of medical suppliers, a move aimed at curtailing the dispensing and movement of illegal, falsified and substandard medicines across the two countries.
The MoU was signed last week between the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) and the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) and will facilitate among other things the inspection of facilities to ensure safe, quality, and effective health products in the two countries.
It spells out how the two countries are going to co-operate on the health and safety front and their capacity to monitor the movement of medicines and related products between them. MCAZ Director-General, Mr Richard Rukwata said the landmark signing marks a significant step towards strengthening the regulatory frameworks of the neighbouring countries.
“This landmark event marks a significant step towards strengthening the regulatory frameworks of both Zimbabwe and South Africa in the pharmaceutical sector. The MoU is designed to facilitate cooperation and collaboration between the two countries in the areas of medicines regulation, quality control, and pharmacovigilance,” said Mr Rukwata.
Pharmacovigilance, also known as drug safety, is the pharmaceutical science relating to the collection, detection, assessment, monitoring and prevention of adverse effects with pharmaceutical products.
The MoU between MCAZ and SAHPRA will allow the regulators to develop a cooperative partnership towards ensuring access to safe, quality and effective health products in the respective countries.
Dr Boitumelo Semete Makokotlela SAHPRA Chief Executive Officer also lauded the partnership saying it enhances capacity building between the two countries and the continent at large.
“The forging of partnerships such as this MoU with the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe, a fellow African National Regulatory Authority, is key to further enhancing and building capacity on the continent,” said Dr Makokotlela.
Zimbabwe will benefit immensely in that time will be saved in product reviews locally, which will have been conducted by South Africa.
“If a medicine is submitted for approval in Zimbabwe and SAHPRA (South Africa) has already approved the medicine, MCAZ can get relevant information on the medicine from SAHPRA to enable faster decision making and consequently the product can be approved faster than when such information had not been shared. SAHPRA would have gone through a full review of the product and would be able to share the relevant information which enables MCAZ to approve the medicine without redoing the work of review of the application which ordinarily takes significant effort, time and resources,” said Mr Rukwata.– @NyembeziMu
Bongani Ndlovu