Health Director-General Precious Matsoso has called for increased cooperation in the regulation of medicines as part of ensuring the safety of patients. Matsoso was speaking at the Pharmaceutical Inspection Cooperation Scheme (PIC/S) meeting currently underway in Somerset West, Cape Town.
In her keynote address to the meeting Matsoso called upon all national medicines regulatory authorities to cooperate more closely and share information on good manufacturing practices inspections to ensure that the public is protected from unsafe, ineffective and poor quality medicines. Matsoso emphasised the role of a medicine regulatory authority in guaranteeing the quality, safety and efficacy of medicines made available to the public and that good manufacturing practices (GMP) are the mainstay of quality assurance in pharmaceutical production and control.
The meeting is attended by delegates from 49 medicine regulatory authorities, of which seven countries is from Africa. The Medicines Control Council from South Africa has obtained membership on 1 July 2007, making them the first country from Africa to obtain PIC/S membership. The PIC/S membership can be categorised into developed and developing countries. The developed countries include among others Australia, Canada, United States of America, Israel, Singapore, various European countries such as the United Kingdom and Ireland, while the developing country list has South Africa, Argentina and Malaysia.
As of 1 January 2011 PIC/S membership totaled 39 participating authorities, this is a technical arrangement between 39 Competent Medicine Regulatory Authorities in the field of GMP inspections of pharmaceutical medicine manufacturing sites and is designed to assist national medicine regulatory authorities to strengthen their GMP inspectorate and regulatory standards. This is accomplished in a number of ways namely: through member countries harmonising their medicine inspectorate quality systems and GMP guidelines; promoting networking between competent authorities and developing mutual trust and confidence; exchanging information and practical experience on GMP and related topics; mutual training of inspectors and lastly support of the GMP inspectorate.
