GS1 Healthcare Africa

Nigeria’s traceability strategy signed, a milestone that charts the way for improved pharmaceutical traceability in Africa’s most populous country

It was during the 2nd GS1 Africa Healthcare conference in September 2019 and under the coordination of the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation (AMRH) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) at which representatives from national governments and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) from across Africa were present, that Professor Moji Christianah Adeyeye, the Director General for of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control of Nigeria (NAFDAC) stepped onto the podium and proposed a call to action to use GS1 standards to support pharmaceutical traceability in their countries.

Approximately 1h later, 25 countries in Africa and 6 donor organisations pledged to use GS1 standards to help achieve greater supply chain integrity and fight fake medicines in their respective countries.

Almost a year after the call to action, Nigeria officially launched their traceability strategy, which charted out the steps that the country would take to build up their traceability system. The Nigeria National Pharmaceutical Traceability Strategy was launched by the Honorable Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire. At the launch, The Traceability Steering Committee, a special task force to oversee the implementation of the traceability strategy wasofficially inaugurated. The Director-General NAFDAC, Professor Moji Christianah Adeyeye and the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Abdullaziz Abdullahi also made speeches at the launch.

During his speech, Dr Ehanire mentioned that the challenge of poor visibility in the pharmaceutical supply chain in Nigeria necessitated the adoption of innovative approaches and complementary partnerships to disrupt the cycle of wastages from expired commodities, shortages, infiltration of substandard and falsified products, diversion and pilferage of products in the health sector hence the need for Pharmaceutical Traceability. He mentioned that the launch of the Nigeria Pharmaceutical Traceability Strategy demonstrates the commitment of the Federal Government of Nigeria to improving access to quality medicines and other health commodities in line with the second National Strategic Health Development Plan and was also in line with the Ministry’s efforts at achieving goal number three (3) of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):Good Health and Well-being of the citizenry.

During her speech. Professor Adeyeye expressed the current situation by saying, “Safeguarding the health of the Nation is a daunting task in the face of the chaotic drug distribution system currently existing in Nigeria. The falsification and diversion of health commodities carry serious health and economic consequences”. The consideration of these consequences vis-à-vis the mandate of NAFDAC to regulate and control, among other things, the distribution of drugs and other regulated products is sufficient motivation to adopt and implement strategies that can assist in the fight against the menace of substandard and falsified medicines (SFs), and thereby improve the regulatory control of the medicines supply chain in Nigeria by providing visibility across the value chain.

The minister described his expectation from the traceability system by saying, “The gains of implementing pharmaceutical traceability are noteworthy. Traceability will provide visibility of medicines from plant to patient; promote trust in the pharmaceutical sector and healthcare system; increase opportunity for trade of domestically manufactured pharmaceuticals; increase data quality to support pharmacovigilance; decrease infiltration of substandard and falsified (SF) medications; and ultimately, increase patient safety.”

For additional information about this, please contact healthcare@gs1ng.org

The launch of the Nigeria Pharmaceutical Traceability Strategy demonstrates the commitment of the Federal Government of Nigeria to improving access to quality medicines and other health commodities in line with the second National Strategic Health Development Plan.Dr. Ehanire, Honorable Minister of Health of Nigeria

Collaborating with local stakeholders in Kenya to help lay the foundation for pharmaceutical traceability

GS1 Kenya has been supporting awareness building and sensitization of GS1 standards to the various stakeholders in the government of Kenya in collaboration with partners such as USAID’s Global health Supply Chain – Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) Projects.

The landscape in Kenya is a bit complex characterized by a booming local pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and a decentralised model which puts a lot of power in the hands of each of the 47 county leads. Additionally, there is a reputable existence of private health care providers. GS1 Kenya has also collaborated with private sector. In 2020, they signed an agreement with the association of private hospitals (APH) with the objective of working to establish traceability of the entire value chain from the time the patient visits the health facility through the time they receive medication and leave. GS1 Kenya has identified onesuch private hospital which is The Nairobi hospital and has signed an NDA on which they will be moving to begin the implementation process in 2021. This work is expected to lay the foundation for engagements with public hospitals including the Kenyatta national hospital.

At the national level, GS1 Kenya has collaborated with development partners including the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to raise awareness and encourage investment in the use of GS1 standards. The members of parliament have been engaged due to their important role in laying the foundation of understanding and building a ready policy environment for new regulation that requires the use of GS1 standards. In addition,GS1 Kenya has engaged with Kenya’s Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB), an important stakeholder in setting the requisite policy environment for the use of the standards. These collaborations lay the foundation for work that is expected to mature in 2021.

For additional information about the work in Kenya, contact info@gs1kenya.org

COVID-19 or no, stakeholders in Ghana are progressing in full speed with GS1 implementation

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted plans for many all over the world. In Ghana, the stakeholders had planned to have a strategic plan development workshop in April 2020, but this was not possible.

However, the stakeholder group, through the leadership of the Ministry of Health Director, Mrs. Jocelyne Aziz and the team from USAID-GHSC project got together virtually to advance the conversations, this includes forming a virtual group to receive and share routine updates and organizing orientations virtually through Zoom. The persistence demonstrates the commitment and interest that the Ghanian government has in adopting the standards to support traceability and thus advance the agenda in the country of ensuring patient safety and securing their supply chains.

For additional information about the implementation in Ghana contact info@gs1gh.org and healthcare@moh.gov

GS1 Healthcare collaborated with Deloitte in producing a white paper: “Securing trust in the global COVID-19 supply chain” which explains the challenges experienced in the race to have a secure, accurate and timely supply chain to get COVID-19 vaccines to patients. Read the paper to find out more about the role of global standards at the time of a global crisis.