What’s at stake

Effective quality control laboratories perform essential testing of medicines and medical devices to help prevent poor-quality medical products from reaching patients. Accreditation signals that laboratories are capable of delivering accurate and reliable results to ensure product quality, strengthen laboratory systems, and help regulators approve medical products that are safe and effective for public use.

Laboratories are fundamental to strong health systems and essential in the response to outbreaks, pandemics, and other public health emergencies.

Project goals and objectives

• Direct and design the rehabilitation of physio-chemical, microbiology, and medical device laboratories, including updating existing lab infrastructure.
• Strengthen the capacity of the national quality control laboratory to detect poor-quality medical products and prevent them from reaching patients. 
• Provide technical assistance in building strong quality management systems toward achieving relevant international accreditations (i.e., ISO/IEC 17025)

Progress

• Completed site assessments and concept designs for specific laboratories, which included rescoping the original plan to address significant space restrictions.
• Designed an advanced physio-chemical, microbiology, and medical device testing facility, which builds on previous project work, and significantly improves the building's capabilities to accommodate staff and laboratory needs.
• Developed and validated specifications for 45 pieces of analytical equipment in the quality control laboratory and more than 300 laboratory consumables, including beakers, test tubes, safety gear, reagents, and other products.
• Trained laboratory personnel on 16 topics, including lab safety, measurement uncertainty, visual inspections, and more.
• Developed a five-year strategic plan to improve sustainability, including through revenue-generating activities.