Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda has said the newly-launched National Medicine Quality Control Laboratory will save government millions of kwacha and bring in the much-needed foreign exchange.
Speaking in Lilongwe on Wednesday during the launch held jointly with celebrations of the facility’s ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation, the minister said the laboratory’s primary mandate is to ensure safety, quality, and efficacy of medicines and aIlied substances manufactured locally or imported into the country.
During the event, the Pharmacy and Medicines Regulatory Authority (PMRA) received an accreditation certificate from the Southern African Development Community Accreditation Service.
The minister observed that in the past, government would send samples to Kenya for testing.
Said Chiponda: “We used to spend over $1 million [K170 billion]. We are grateful to the Global Fund for partnering with us as a ministry to finance the establishment of this laboratory.
“It is a great milestone as we have been accredited internationally, meaning organisations and other countries will be able to send samples to our laboratory for testing and the results can be shared globally. So this laboratory can earn us forex,” she said.
PMRA board chairperson Filder Chimimba said the accreditation is a milestone to both private and government institutions dealing in medical drugs.
The laboratory to be run by PMRA, was constructed with funding from the Malawi Government and the Global Fund.
It will address challenges related to good laboratory practices, notably the lack of space and absence of quality management system in compliance with Section 79 of the PMRA Act, 2019.
