Project Title

Countering the prevalence of substandard and falsified medicines in Malawi (COPSMEDS)

EDCTP Project Call

Career Development Fellowship (CDF)

Project Objectives

Overall Objective; To investigate the prevalence of SF medicines and its linkage with the pharmaceutical price, logistics and supply, and country of origin Specific Objectives • To quantify the prevalence of SF medicines in the public, CHAM and private sectors in Malawi • To assess temperature variation in various storage sites for medicines and medical supplies • To assess the impact of pharmaceutical storage (temperature, humidity) in the deterioration of pharmaceutical quality in various storage sites for medicines in Malawi • To assess the impact of distribution (pharmaceutical supply chain and logistics) on quality of medicines • To assess the influence of economic incentives (including pricing) has on the proliferation of SF medicines

Study Design

For this conceptual framework, analysis of quality of selected medicines will be done to explain the model. This approach for investigation is explanatory and comprises cross-sectional and longitudinal sample collection. These will be followed by laboratory analysis and techniques leading to quantitative data for the study. The quantitative data for this study is both descriptive and analytical. Descriptive because it is describing the pattern of prevalence of poor quality medicines in Malawi, while analytical because it tries to infer the possible contributing factors of poor quality medicines in Malawi by looking at country of origin, storage and logistic factors, and price as predictor of substandard and falsified medicines. Eighteen various medicines have been selected which includes antimalarial, antibiotic, antihypertensive and antidiabetic medicines. The selection of the medicines has been done using: Malawi Standard Treatment Guideline 2015 and Malawi Essential Medicines List 2015; WHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines 2019; WHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines for Children 2019

Host Organisation

Current Organisation

College of Medicine

Current Job Title

Associate Professor of Pharmacy

Biography