[e-drug] Urgent wake-up call for public health community: Control of medical products

E-DRUG: Urgent wake-up call for public health community: Control of medical products
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Dear Fellow E-Drug Followers

As COVID-19 spreads across the world, it's time we reckon with the
regulatory capacities of low- and middle-income countries to control the
medical products entering their markets.

Falsified medicines for the novel coronavirus are leaking into Africa and other parts of the world, while several countries are promoting untested treatments for the virus. All this while the global health community is directing billions of dollars of aid into procuring medical products for countries before evidence of their safety, efficacy, or quality is established.

In an article titled 'A Wake-Up Call Both Brutal and Urgent' in Think
Global Health, Tamara Hafner and Javier Guzman, technical experts from the
USAID-funded MTaPS program implemented by Management Sciences for Health,
explain why the pandemic is an alarm bell for donors, the global health
community and governments to invest in regulatory systems in their
countries.

'As we struggle to meet emergency needs during the pandemic, we have a
window of opportunity to overhaul the way we handle the regulation of
medical products,' call out Hafner and Guzman.

Read full article on Think Global Health
<https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/wake-call-both-brutal-and-urgent&gt;

Rajita
On behalf of USAID MTaPS Global Technical Team
www.mtapsprogram.org

Rajita Majumdar
USAID MTaPS Strategic Communications Lead
Management Sciences for Health
US-VA-Arlington-All
United States
Email: rmajumdar@mtapsprogram.org