By Dickson Bandera
Zimbabwe and South Africa have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the regulation of health products that will see the two countries conducting product reviews and inspections, among other related interventions to ensure access to safe, quality, and effective health products in the respective countries
Medicals Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) and the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Harare this Friday morning.
The Mou creates a platform for development of a cooperative partnership towards ensuring access to safe, quality, and effective health products in the respective countries.
The regulators will cooperate in joint product reviews and inspections to enable efficient access to health products, while also focussing on the detection and curbing of substandard and falsified health products moving between the two countries.
The two neighbouring countries share health products, but there have been reports of substandard and fake products being released into the market, a challenge which this MoU seeks to plug.
MCAZ Director-General, Mr Richard Rukwata said “this landmark event marks a significant step towards strengthening the regulatory frameworks of both Zimbabwe and South Africa in the pharmaceutical sector. The MoU is designed to facilitate cooperation and collaboration between the two countries in the areas of medicines regulation, quality control, and pharmacovigilance”, he said.
On the other end, SAHPRA CEO, Dr. Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela said “the forging of partnerships such as this MoU with the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe, a fellow African National Regulatory Authority, is key to further enhancing and building capacity on the continent”.
