The doctoral student Love Rayco Cáceres Pérez Last Thursday, February 27th, he defended his Doctoral Thesis entitled "Quality assurance of medicines in the treatment of HIV and other neglected tropical diseases" at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of La Laguna.
This study highlights the importance of controlling the quality of medicines during their storage in the supply chain, with the aim of detecting batches that do not meet quality specifications and that influence the inadequate treatment of the population affected by tuberculosis, malaria and HIV.
Post-marketing drug quality assessment was conducted using a sampling plan that considered critical points in the supply chain. In addition, analytical methods were validated according to international recommendations, and the tests described in the European and American pharmacopoeias for each drug were performed to verify compliance with specifications.
Analysis of compliance with specifications after storage, simulating the actual climatic conditions of Mauritania, identifies these conditions as a potential cause of the presence of substandard medicines. 65% of the medicines sampled in Mauritania were classified as substandard (83.33% antituberculosis drugs, 8.33% antimalarial drugs, and 8.33% antiretroviral drugs).
This research work is part of the European project ISACAM, led by the professor from the University of La Laguna José B. Fariña Espinosa, whose objective has been to establish a system that ensures the quality of medicines used in Mauritania in the treatment of these diseases.
This project lasted for four years and enabled the training of Mauritanian staff in advanced drug analysis techniques, as well as raising awareness among Mauritanian health authorities of the importance of strengthening the National Laboratory for Drug Quality Control (LNCQM).
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