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Capacity Building for Stakeholders in charge of Monitoring the Safety for COVID-19 Vaccines and the New Oral Polio Vaccine Type 2 (nVPO2), Republic of Congo.

Starting from January 2021, the Republic of Congo planned two vaccination campaigns. One, against poliomyelitis (through the introduction of the new oral polio vaccine type 2 “nVPO2”) and the other – COVID-19 (using the SARS-cov-2 vaccines manufactured by Sinopharm and Sputnik V manufactured by Gamaleïa). 

These vaccines having received an authorization, the Ministry of Health deployed them for emergency use in the country, on the condition, among other things, the rigorous implementation of coordinated activities in order to monitor their safety during these campaigns.

Due to this, the Republic of Congo has reinforced its surveillance system for any after-effect during post-vaccination, by keeping the actors of the various links in this chain, on the alert. It has also set up (to complement the existing system) a Causality Analysis Committee (CAC) responsible for assessing the causal link for a given case of MAPI (MAnifestation Post-vaccinale Indésirable) relating to the vaccines above.

Among the actors responsible for monitoring the safety of vaccines in the country, are the focal points of departments and districts, with the responsibility to compile and provide first quality assurance of MAPI notifications (in the 10 departments and 52 health districts of the country) and the CAC’s ultimate responsibility for evaluating the causal link for MAPI-Vaccine.

To support these actors with the MAPI surveillance system and to carry out their missions, the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with WHO and the AFRICLINIQUE Network, organized a series of capacity-building workshops for these different actors.

For more information, click on: News Release in English

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Congratulations to Dr. Auréole Liptia NDOUNDOU, appointed Director of Health Information, Evaluation and Research at the Ministry of Health and Population of Congo

The current Minister of Health and Population, Mr Gilbert MOKOKI on Wednesday, June 30, 2021, appointed Dr Auréole Liptia NDOUNDOU to the position of Director of Health Information, Evaluation and Research.

Dr NDOUNDOU who since 2016, held the position of “Documentation advisor” at the Minister of Health and Population, is the supervisor of CANTAM and Africlinique activities at the Ministry of Health and Population (MSP).

Dr NDOUNDOU, who coordinates among others, the “Octobre Rose” campaign in the fight against cancer, is not new in the domain of health. She discovered this domain out of her country, the Congo. From April 2014 to June 2016, she was Laboratory Assistant for Public Health at the Cheick Anta Diop University (UCAD) in Dakar, Senegal before ascending to the functions of Officer of Public Health on “MIH-Santé” and “Projet RIU” at the Public Health Centre in Valencia – Spain, and the Representative of the Public Health Programmes for Students at the Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) in London – England.

She holds a PhD in Pharmacy from UCAD, and is a Public and Community Health Specialist from the University of the GCU. Dr. NDOUNDOU is a polyglot with fluency in English, Spanish, Kikongo and Lingala.

However, we are aware of the fact that many challenges await her as she heads the Directorate of Health Information, Evaluation and Research. We want to assure her of our support as a team in this network, of which she is part.

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The Congolese National Medicines Regulatory Authority (DPM) with WHO to guarantee the development and circulation of safe and effective drugs, by implementing the Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT).

As part of the strengthening of health systems and in particular the regulation of drugs and health products, the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO), the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), and the WHO Country Office (PO) in the Republic of Congo provided technical assistance to support the Directorate of Pharmacy and Medicine (DPM) of Congo from February 15 to 19 2021 in Brazzaville.

The self-assessment of the Directorate of Pharmacy and Medicine (DPM) by the Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT) of the NRAs was initiated at the regional workshop for the harmonization of drug regulation of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), in February 2020 in Libreville, Gabon. The GBT integrates the Maturity Level (ML) of the various drug regulatory functions in a computerized platform that facilitates its use and the ranking of maturity indicators. This self-assessment has enabled several countries in the sub-region to identify their ML as well as to put in place institutional development plans (IDPs) in order to access a ML which guarantees safety,  quality and effectiveness of drugs in development and in circulation. Click here to for news release in English o in French.

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Knowledge sharing

Medicines Regulatory capacity building in the Republic of Congo

To foster scientific excellence in the evaluation and supervision of medicines, for the benefit of public health, the Ministry in charge of health of the Republic of Congo has initiated a plan to strengthen the regulatory capacity of its Department of Pharmacy and Medicines implemented by its director, Dr Boniface OKOUYA. This process is based on a strong commitment to pharmaceutical reform for which the law will be promulgated shortly. It is in this momentum that the Directorate of Pharmacy and Medicines in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africlinique project, a regulatory capacity building project in Central Africa (funded by the European Union  through EDCTP), will carry out a self-assessment of its pharmaceutical regulatory system using the Global Benchmarking  Tool (GBT) developed by the WHO, which also focuses on clinical trials oversight.

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Establishment of the national pharmacovigilance system in the Republic of Congo, as achievement for a decade of unceasing commitment and joint efforts

The workshop for the preparation and validation of the draft decree establishing a national pharmacovigilance system in the Republic of Congo, supervised by the Director of Pharmacy and Medicines, Dr Boniface Okouya (Member of Africlinique) was held from 23 to 24 October 2020 in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. This workshop was also devoted to the development of the national pharmacovigilance guide and the notification forms for adverse reactions to medical products which are part of the tools of the national pharmacovigilance system.

Dr Boniface Okouya included this workshop within the framework of the pharmaceutical reform process. Indeed, “As part of its sovereign role of guaranteeing public health in the Republic of Congo, the Congolese government, under the leadership of the Minister of Health, Population, Promotion of Women and Integration of women in development, Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo, is firmly committed to the process of pharmaceutical reform. The establishment of a national pharmacovigilance system is one of the key results expected from this reform” said Dr Boniface Okouya, in his capacity as the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority (ANRP).

A strong pharmacovigilance in Central Africa is also an objective of the EDCTP-funded project Africlinique.

The Africlinique Project Manager, Jolivet Mayela, Project Manager also at the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research (FCRM) headed by Prof. Francine Ntoumi (also Africlinique Coordinator), believes that the establishment of a national pharmacovigilance system should crown all the efforts of the last decade. “Because, in terms of drug safety, the ministry in charge of health has the mandate, through the Department of Pharmacy and Medicines, to guarantee the rational use of medicines and health products to the populations. Indeed, badly used or stored drugs can become more harmful than a poison” he said. Jolivet Mayela also welcomed the fact that the draft decree also takes into account the need to better regulate the use of traditional health products, whether improved or not. 

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Regulatory preparedness for research during emergencies

The Africlinique network organised together with CANTAM (the EDCTP-funded Central Africa Network on Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria, coordinated by Prof. Francine Ntoumi of the Fondation Congolaise pour la Recherche Médicale – FCRM, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo), a webinar on the regulatory conditions for research (preparation) during epidemics. The webinar was succesfully completed on 5th and 6th August 2020 with a large participation of a variety of audience and stakeholders.