The health sector celebrated another milestone achievement in the form of the country’s first Medicines Quality Control Laboratory.
The laboratory will enable the Department of Health to perform quality tests for medicines to ensure they those dispensed to patients are genuine and not counterfeit.
As medicines and health products are lifesaving items, Papua New Guineans deserve access to quality, safe and effective drugs when sick.
“When this facility is fully operational, I can assure you that the medicinal products that we will bring into the country both government and private will be of quality,” said Minister Temu.
The facility will undergo continuous development, both human resource and equipment-wise, to meet world health requirements.
The lab further compliments the K266 million allocated from the 2018 budget for medical supplies, said Minister for Health, HIV/AIDS, Sir Puka Temu.
He said combating and treating lifestyle diseases like TB, malaria, cancer and pregnancy related complications will be boosted now that the country has the facility to do quality checks on drugs.
It will detect counterfeits, substandard and falsified medicines and provide evidence for the department to take regulatory actions against businesses or individuals distributing low quality medicines. That is the big public health and security role of the lab.