FDA officials and partners launch minilab in Juba. (-)

The Food and Drug Control Authority (FDA) launched a quality control minilab meant to ensure access to safe, quality-assured medicinal products & devices on Wednesday.

The FDA laboratory was set up with the aim of testing food and medicines to ensure a sustainable access to safe, effective and quality products of medicine and devices.

The event was attended by the Committee of Health and Population in the parliament, the Ministry of East Africa community, and the South Sudan National Bureau of Stander.

Other participants in the event include the USAID, UNDP, UNFPA and South Sudan Pharmacists Association.

Dr. Matilda Mutale, representative of the World Health Organization urged the national regulatory authority to carry out tests on medicine entering the country.

“The Drug and Food Control Authority is to holistically carry out its core functions of laboratory access and testing,” she said.

“We’ve already been taught how sometimes we fall prey to people who’d want things to be done their way. But I want to urge you to ensure that we carry out this function.”

Food and Drug Control Authority was established in September 2014 by the National Ministry of Ministry of Health to regulate the importation of essential items.

For his part, Mawien Atem, the Secretary General of South Sudan Drug and Food Control Authority called for the training of more doctors to carry out the task.

Atem said the personnel will be in charge of testing any drugs entering the country.

“Right. From today onward, our staff who have already been trained, and others who will have to be trained also will have to be doing the work. This is in combating the substandard and falsified medical products that are all around the world,” he said.

“We are part of East Africa. Whether in East Africa and South Sudan, all of us know that medicines have no borders. They can be thrown at us from anywhere. And that is why the web is a little connected.”

In January 2024, a pharmacist in Juba alleged that drugs banned in the sub-Saharan region are being sold in South Sudan as he called for importing effective malaria treatment drugs and other related supplies.