Promoting quality medicines and saving lives

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of WHO programme to improve medicines quality worldwide

With

Dr Lembit Rägo
Head, Regulation of Medicines and other Health Technologies, WHO

Ms Gugu N. Mahlangu
Director-General, Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe

Professor Jin Shaohong
Chief Expert for Pharmaceutical Products, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, China

Mr David Churchward
Expert Good Manufacturing and Distribution Practices Inspector, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, UK

Pharmaceutical production and regulation have become highly sophisticated in the last few decades, bringing medicines to market to treat most diseases. Medicines quality, on the other hand, remains a challenge. Defective medicines alerts continue to be raised from all corners of the world and shortages of life-saving medicines linked to manufacturing quality problems in many cases have become a global concern.

Ensuring the quality and safety of medicines is a highly specialized task, which has become too complex for any government to perform on its own. Regulatory authorities increasingly call for collaboration, joint decision-making and a common point of reference. WHO, by working with its 194 Member States and with its knowledge of developing country challenges, has provided that point of reference for almost 60 years by developing and promoting international quality standards for medicines through its Expert Committee on Specifications for Pharmaceutical Products and its International Pharmacopoeia.