In a move to improve the quality assurance of drugs being used to treat malaria, the Regional Artemisinin-resistance Initiative (RAI) grant is funding support to strengthen Myanmar’s Food and Drug Regulatory Authority. 

The support will strengthen the capacity of the Myanmar Food and Drug Regulatory Authority (FDA) in drug quality monitoring and drug regulation, in order to stop the marketing of artemisinin monotherapy and to promote access to artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACTs).

Drug quality monitoring will ensure that the quality of ACTs meets international standards at all stages of the supply chain, including while being stored, distributed, and dispensed to patients.

The FDA and UNOPS Procurement and Supply Chain Management team are engaged in a joint effort to strengthen the capacity of national staff to detect fake anti-malarial medicines with FDA staff being trained at State/Regional level. Vector Borne Disease Control Programme staff are also being trained in drug sample collection and screening using Minilab test kits. These have been procured with support from the Global Fund. Drug sample analysis is conducted to detect both fake and substandard antimalarial drugs.

These measures are part of the Regional Artemisinin-resistance Initiative (RAI), the goal of which is to avert the spread of artemisinin resistance and accelerate elimination of P. falciparum malaria in Myanmar and within Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) countries. UNOPS has been selected as a Regional Principal Recipient for the RAI, which covers five of the GMS countries, including Myanmar, for the period 2014–2016 and with a total grant of US$100 million.