Pakistan’s regulatory system has limited capacity for medicines quality surveillance, which contributes to the proliferation of substandard and falsified medical products in the country. The lack of regulatory enforcement and centers to conduct reliable bioequivalence studies reduces confidence in the efficacy of generic medical products manufactured in Pakistan.
Inconsistent government policies for the pharmaceutical sector have undermined the private sector’s potential role in improving health outcomes. PQM+ focused on advancing medicine quality assurance elements to enhance Global Health Security Agenda initiatives; promoting maternal, newborn, and child health; addressing communicable diseases; and engaging the private sector in achieving better health outcomes and contributing to economic development.
PQM+ also supported the government’s response to COVID-19 through several activities, including facilitating emergency use authorization for vaccines, supporting the local manufacture of personal protective equipment, engaging the private sector to build the capacity of public and private sector diagnostic laboratories to use new COVID-19 diagnostic technologies, and building the capacity of hospital staff to manufacture alcohol-based hand sanitizer in-house, which helped optimize resources.
All activities in Pakistan were completed and the program was closed in 2023.
Impact stories and news
- Leveraging COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Monitoring in Ethiopia and Pakistan to Enhance System-Wide Safety Surveillance
- Pakistan improves vaccine safety monitoring
- Strengthening National Quality Control Laboratories
- Five WHO drug testing labs avert supply of unsafe medicines
- USAID strengthens Pakistan’s public diagnostic labs to respond to COVID-19
- Pakistan improves access to COVID-19 treatment through technology transfer
- Pakistan begins to manufacture and export quality-assured personal protective equipment to fight COVID-19
- First public sector lab to test quality of Personal Protective Equipment established in Pakistan
- Strong medical product quality assurance systems lead to rapid COVID-19 response
- Pakistan streamlines process to bring quality medical products to market
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Islamabad, Pakistan
