QUALITY MEDICINE FOR ALL

The global pharmaceutical market is characterized by the coexistence of varied quality standards : where patients in rich, strictly regulated countries can generally rely on the efficiency, safety and intrinsic quality of the medicines available to them, a large majority of people in resource-limited countries are at risk of receiving or buying poor quality pharmaceuticals. This difference is due to many reasons, among which we can mention :

– lack of resources from regulatory authorities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)
– the growing complexity and globalization of the pharmaceutical market
– the increasing pressure on prices to the detriment of a clear definition of the required quality standards
– limited awareness of the problem among key stakeholders, including some of the largest donors
– the lack of public and transparent information about the quality of medicines
– and finally the lack of political will at national and international level.

Although the problem posed by falsified medicines is the subject of a growing number of global initiatives, that of substandard drugs – the extent of which is very worrying in the LMICs – remains insufficiently taken into account. Substandard drugs, however, have at least as negative an impact on the health of vulnerable populations as falsified drugs.

OUR GOALS AND STRATEGY

To contribute to improving access to quality medicines, QUAMED is based on several strategic axes

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The development of a network North / South to facilitate the sharing of reliable information on the sources of medicines and ease the communication between key players in pharmaceutical procurement. Rather than act independently the members plan their activities together relating to supplies and results of these activities are shared within the network via the database data.

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Streamlining the use of resources by pooling skills as well as human and financial resources across the network.

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The provision of recognized expertise in quality assurance and drug supply.

OUR CHARTER

Any member of the association adheres to the QUAMED Charter and considers the access to quality essential drugs as a human right, universal and inalienable. QUAMED and its members commit themselves therefore to make every effort to improve procurement practices into the pharmaceutical industry and to participate in a wider awareness of the problem. QUAMED is not involved in any manufacturing activity, distribution or sales of drugs.

OUR TEAM

QUAMED is a non-profit association based in France (law 1901).

Quamed members (individuals and organisations) have extensive experience in the pharmaceutical, drug regulation and drug supply sectors in non-governmental organizations, international organizations and other institutions. They have worked, and continue to practice, in a wide variety of geographical and socio-economic contexts (Western Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe) in collaboration with organizations such as WHO, the Global Fund , UNICEF, UNITAID and a large number of international NGOs and purchasing organisations.

In addition to the members, QUAMED has a network of external specialists that can be mobilized for consultations, technical support, physical or remote training sessions and other quality assurance related activities.

Operational Team

The QUAMED operational team is a small multifunctional team that combines experience and knowledge from different fields: pharmacy, economics, management, accounting, purchasing and supply chain management, quality assurance, administration and communication.

Ed Vreeke

Ed Vreeke

Executive Director

Ed Vreeke is Canadian national. He has experience related to essential generic medicines and medical supplies is in the following fields: procurement and supply systems organisation, management, monitoring and evaluation, general management and organisation of Central Medical Stores, strategic and policy issues, business plan development, transitioning from government to independent organisation, development, organisation and management of tender processes, conception of revolving medicine funds, performance based financing systems, costing analysis.

Laurine Lavergne

Laurine Lavergne

Technical Coordinator

Laurine is a pharmacist with a degree in public health and a master's degree in economic analysis and international development. She has worked in France and internationally, in the humanitarian and development sector, with a multitude of national and international organisations (UNDP, Expertise France, AFD, GIZ, MSF, various Ministries of Health and central purchasing agencies).

Mary Mzumara-Kadalie

Mary Mzumara-Kadalie

Administration and finance

Mary is a Zambian national living in South Africa. She is an accountant by training and has a postgraduate diploma in Development management and a master in public policy. She has significant management and accounting experience in the private sector as well as in the humanitarian and development sector (SOS Kinderdorf International, CARE and the ILO).

Angelo Urukundo

Angelo Urukundo

Communication advisor

Urukundo Angelo is an experienced Program Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the Digital Marketing industry. Skilled in creative and leadership management. A Bachelor's degree focused in Mass Communication/Media Studies from Mount Kenya University located in Rwanda. Angelo is comfortable and interested in learning about everything Tech and marketing related, his passion for technology inspires him to always look for the next best thing.

Technical Committee

The Executive is advised and guided on technical matters by the Technical Committee. The Technical Committee is a committee of the Board of Directors and an advisory body, composed of experienced professionals from the regulatory and industrial environment, NGOs and the United Nations. The Technical Committee currently has 11 members.

Corinne Pouget

Corinne Pouget

President of the Technical Committee, pharmacist

Corinne Pouget is a pharmacist, specializing in international regulatory affairs and quality assurance. She has been involved in Quamed activities since its inception.

Raffaella Ravinetto

Raffaella Ravinetto

Vice President of the Technical Committee, pharmacist

Raffaella Ravinetto, trained as pharmacist, holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences. She worked as clinical researcher in Europe, as pharmacist in humanitarian programs, and as Clinical Trials Unit’s head at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM). She is currently a senior researcher and policy advisor at ITM. Her research and teaching focus on medicines in resource-limited contexts. She is also the chairperson of ITM Institutional Review Board, and of the Ethics Review Board of Médecins Sans Frontières. Her main areas of interest include access to quality-assured medicines, with a particular focus on the context of low- and middle-income countries. She was president of MSF Italy from 2007 to 2011.

Alex Kosyak

Member

Alexandr Kosyak is a registered licensed pharmacist with extensive federal pharmacy experience (USAID/OFDA, US PHS Indian Health Service, Health Resources and Services Administration, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Homeland Security). His experience extends to all facets of pharmacy practice (Chain Pharmacies, Independent Pharmacies, Extended Care Facilities, Clinical Research, Hospital Pharmacy, Medication Consulting, Laboratory Operations, Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management). In addition, he has extensive experience in Pharmaceutical Vendor Quality Assurance and Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Quality Assurance in low and middle-income countries, which makes him so valuable as a member of QUAMED’s Technical Committee.

Barbara Rhot-Neitzert

Barbara Rhot-Neitzert

Member

Barbara is a pharmacist with 15-year experience in Health Procurement and Supply Management in developing countries with a focus on access, legal and regulatory framework and quality assurance of medicines in the not-for-profit sector. Barbara is now using her knowledge of the field and acquiring new skills to support the roll out of a medicine to treat a neglected tropical disease in Africa.

Cecile Macé

Cecile Macé

Member

Cecile Macé is a public health pharmacist with a degree in tropical diseases. Her main skills are in procurement, quality assurance of health products, access and rational use of medicines. She has worked in Africa for more than ten years and has worked with MSF, the International Union Against Tuberculosis, WHO, and UNDP, among others.

Christophe Perrin

Christophe Perrin

Member

After more than 10 years of clinical research and two field missions for Pharmacists Without Borders, Christope has focused on the challenges affecting the supply and access to quality assured medicines in resource-constrained countries, mainly with Médecins Sans Frontières. He specialises in quality assurance (QA) standards and clinical trials for the pharmaceutical industry. Over the past 15 years he has worked on QA issues with donors, pooled procurement mechanisms, humanitarian supply agencies, central medical shops and private wholesalers.

Jérôme Barré

Jérôme Barré

Member

Jérôme Barré is a pharmacist with clinical, academic and regulatory experience. He manages the biological resource centre of the Intercommunal Hospital Centre of Créteil, France. He is an expert appointed by the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) as well as a member of the EMA's Pharmacokinetics Working Paty. He has carried out consultancy missions on product evaluation for the UNDP. He has more than 130 publications in scientific journals.

Olivier Andriollo

Olivier Andriollo

Member

Olivier ANDRIOLLO is Quality Assurance Director of a wholesaler of generic medicines for developing countries. Olivier is graduated in pharmacy with a major in quality audit in pharmaceutical industry. Olivier started his career at an NGO active in the procurement of medicines for humanitarian programs in charge of the quality control laboratory during 5 years. Then, after three years spent as quality manager in a pharmaceutical laboratory, he joined a wholesaler where he is in charge of the prequalification of manufacturers and medicines, the maintenance of the quality system of the company and the marketing authorizations. During the last decade, Olivier carried out quality audits of pharmaceutical manufacturers on behalf of his company and third parties as well. He was also an auditor of quality control laboratories and of quality management in pharmacy retail outlets. Olivier is Secretary of “International francophone association of college of pharmacist” (CIOPF).

Olivier Depaire

Olivier Depaire

Member

Olivier Depaire, a pharmacist with a passion for Life Sciences, having worked for over 30 years for major pharmaceutical companies in the fields of Regulatory Affairs and Quality. For the past 3 years, involved in GMDP training, quality and CMC audits, and certification for pharmaceutical and biotech specialities, in Europe and Africa.

Patrick Lukulay

Patrick Lukulay

Member

Dr Patrick Lukulay is a globally-recognized leader in the area of pharmaceutical QA. He holds a PhD in Analytical Chemistry. He is a public health professional and a pharmaceutical scientist with many years of experience working in the pharmaceutical industry. He has worked with Pfizer Inc. as a Senior Principal Scientist where he led teams to develop methods and specifications for the development of new drug candidates, and with Wyeth Research as Senior Research Scientist where he led a team of analytical scientists to support drug discovery efforts. As a former director and vice president at United States Pharmacopeia, he led the USAID-funded Promoting the Quality of Medicines Program where he oversaw the growth of the program to build the capacity of regulatory authorities and pharmaceutical companies in developing countries including South East Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. He has recently founded Technology Solutions for Global Health (Tech4Health), in Ghana with the objective to increase the competitiveness of the African pharmaceutical industry in manufacturing quality-assured medicines. His greatest achievements include serving on the US National Academy of Medicine committee to assess the state of drug and regulation quality globally.

Patricia Tabernero Estévez

Patricia Tabernero Estévez

Member

Patricia Tabernero works at the Pharmaceutical Inspection and Enforcement Department at the Spanish Medicines Regulatory Agency (AEMPS). Prior to joining AEMPS, Patricia served as the coordinator of the WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN) Antimalarial Quality Scientific Group (University of Oxford, UK), developing and implementing tools to inform the malaria community of the quality of antimalarial drugs and advocate for improved monitoring of substandard and falsified compounds. A pharmacist by background, holds an MSc in the Control of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She has worked in public health research in Asia and Africa during field work activities in Laos, Cambodia, Tanzania and The Gambia.

Sheila Kort

Member

Sheila Kort is a Pharmacist and Clinical Chemist with significant experience in the Quality Control and Medical Laboratory field. She has successfully guided different laboratories towards accreditation from the PAHO network of Official Medicine Control Laboratories.

Thomas Chattaway

Thomas Chattaway

Member

Thomas is a Pharmaceutical and Life Science professional with expertise in drug development, specifically Biologicals manufacturing. He is passionate about enabling access to treatments, globally. He holds a PhD in biochemical engineering and has done post doctoral research at MIT. He has experience in the private and in the public sector.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is made up of recognized professionals with extensive international experience in quality and access to medicines.

Daniel Vandenbergh

Daniel Vandenbergh

President

Daniel Vandenbergh is a public health pharmacist, with more than 30 years of experience in various technical domains related to public health, PSM (Procurement and Supply Management) and LMIS (Logistics Management Information Systems). He has an in-depth knowledge of French-speaking African countries, both in Western and Central Africa, but has worked also in several English-speaking African countries (Zimbabwe, Liberia, Malawi). He also implemented missions in Asia (Lebanon, India, Cambodia).

Corinne Pouget

Corinne Pouget

Member

Corinne Pouget is a pharmacist, specializing in international regulatory affairs and quality assurance. She has been involved in Quamed activities since its inception.

Ed Vreeke

Ed Vreeke

Member of the board and executive director

Ed Vreeke's experience related to essential generic medicines and medical supplies is in the following fields: procurement and supply systems organisation, management, monitoring and evaluation, general management and organisation of Central Medical Stores, strategic and policy issues, business plan development, transitioning from government to independent organisation, development, organisation and management of tender processes, conception of revolving medicine funds, performance based financing systems, costing analysis.

Edwin de Voogd

Edwin de Voogd

Treasurer

Edwin has an economic background and 30+ years’ experience in managing businesses in food and pharmaceuticals, predominantly in emerging markets. Initially in the private sector and later, at the cross road where private sector organisations collaborate with NGO’s and public health organisations. In the past 14+ years, he has specialised in setting up sustainable procurement, supply chain and distribution programs for humanitarian health care programs and partnership between funders, NGO’s, manufacturers and recipients. Edwin has been working with Quamed since 2012 and joined as a member this year.

Daniel Berman

Daniel Berman

Member

Daniel is the head of global health at a London-based innovation foundation called Nesta. He was a founding member of Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) Access to Medicines Campaign, where pharmaceutical and diagnostic quality assurance was a major focus. Before moving to London, he was a full-time consultant for WHO in Ethiopia on a government-led project to support local pharma companies including on GMP. Before that he was General Director of MSF Southern Africa, based in Johannesburg.

Hugo Randé

Hugo Randé

Member

Hugo is Pharmacist Advisor for Action contre la Faim since 2016. Previously he worked for Medecin du Monde based in several west and central African countries. He is particularly concerned with operationalizing of pharmaceutical quality assurance in NGO's daily activities.

Jason Bower

Jason Bower

Secretary to the board

Jason has a pharmacist background and 10+ years experience in essential medicines management in health systems in LMIC. He currently works as an independent consultant specialising in quality assurance and procurement & supply management, and has been a member of QUAMED since 2013.

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