Three partner to improve access to affordable medicines
An initiative aiming to address the barriers of access, affordability and quality of essential medicines in the country, through a regulated digital supply chain platform, has been launched in Accra.
Spearheaded by PharmAccess Foundation (Ghana), the digital platform, known as MED4ALL, is expected to link health service providers with certified and authentic medicine sources.
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A press statement issued last week Wednesday by PharmAccess explained that the project would also help to cut down turnaround time in acquiring medicines for healthcare delivery.
With an estimated 30 per cent of medicines in the country reported as being fake or substandard and leading to failure to treat illnesses and prevent unnecessary deaths, PharmAccess Foundation said the time had come to reduce such incidents.
According to the Country Director of PharmAccess Foundation (Ghana), Dr Maxwell Akwasi Antwi, “the platform connects trusted medicines to healthcare providers. By trusted, we mean medicines approved by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and the suppliers themselves having been approved by the authority.’’
Affordable medicines
The platform, he further explained, would also ensure that health providers gained access to affordable medicines while making certain also that prices were reasonably priced for consumers.
Dr Antwi said the initiative would also address the problem of drug shortages, explaining that “with the platform, patients will be able to access drugs at hospitals, clinics and pharmacies at any given time.”
The system
He said a provider would be required to get onto the MED4ALL platform and log in and then a dropdown of all essential medicines in Ghana would pop up.
At that stage, he said, all the prices of the drugs on the platform would have been negotiated and the supplies determined, after which the provider would then key in the quantum of tablets of medicines required and the supplier would automatically be notified.
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“The supplier is expected to make the supply within seven days and get paid within thirty days,” he said.
CHAG
The statement further said PharmAccess Foundation was in partnership with the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), which is Ghana’s largest network of not-for-profit private health facilities and accounts for an annual 6.5 million patient visits and admissions across 345 facilities, serving especially poor and remote communities.
The Chief Executive Officer of CHAG, Mr Peter K. Yeboah, said “Ghana ranks 7th when it comes to substandard, spurious and fake medicines in the world and hence the MED4ALL project with its embedded digital quality control measures and devices will ensure that medicines are of quality at all times.”
“CHAG is going to collaborate with FDA and use its licensing mechanisms, including barcoding, mini lab testing, medicine transport tracking and use of infrared scanning resources to maximum advantage,” he added.
Quality assurance
He gave an assurance that every medicine that was supplied in a CHAG facility, through MED4ALL, would be submitted to quality assurance testing at all times and would come with a unique transportation and distribution system as part of a chain.
According to Mr Antwi, “all medicines purchased will be delivered in seven days at no extra cost to the receiving CHAG facility, while suppliers were assured of payment within 30 days of delivery, with prices staying at 30 per cent below the prevailing market prices.
The MED4ALL already has four reputable and trusted medicine suppliers on the platform comprising the giants in the pharmaceutical industry, namely, Kinapharma Ltd, Ernest Chemists Ltd, Pharmanova Ltd and Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
The platform will be opened up to other public and private facilities after a pilot phase has been completed.