Medicine Quality Faces Challenges | Cover Story | Chemical & Engineering News

"Under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development in which [the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP)] is funded to provide technical assistance to developing countries, the Promoting the Quality of Medicines (PQM) program works with governments in more than 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Russia to help evaluate and improve a country’s readiness and capacity in ensuring good-quality medicines for such infectious diseases as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. PQM recently launched the Medicines Quality Database, a collection of data on medicine samples tested for their quality as well as the commercial sources in which they were acquired. The availability of tools, such as this free, public database that provides quick and easy access to information on medicines tested for their authenticity, is key to raising awareness of and controlling the distribution of poor-quality medicines across national borders...."