Scientific Research: Cameroon Sets Up Reagent Production Unit

Aisha Endale NJEBA (Intern) | 

The Ministers of Public Health and Scientific Research and Innovation on September 15, 2016, visited the laboratory in Yaounde.

The need for Cameroon to produce reagents to fight against diseases is becoming a reality as the Institute of Medical and Medicinal Plant Research (IMPM) is setting up a laboratory to test drugs. The facility, to be inaugurated in the months ahead, is a laboratory for the production of hematological and biochemical reagents needed in laboratory analyses.

The Minister of Public Health, André Mama Fouda and his colleague of Scientific Research and Innovation, Dr. Madeleine Tchuinté, on September 15, 2016, visited the only body that is expected to give the green light for the consumption of reagents in Cameroon. The areas visited included the production unit where different equipment was presented by the Director of IMPM, Prof. Jean Louis Essamé Oyono as well as their mode of functioning, the quality control section and samples of finished products.

“I came to visit the laboratory put in place by CAMDIAGNOSTIX to produce reagents. We are in the final phase and I came to appreciate the good production methods and deliver the document to guarantee the quality of what is produced,” André Mama Fouda explained.  Dr. Tchuinté thanked the Minister for coming as his ministry will be the highest consumer of the reagents. A technical team will be sent to evaluate the work done so far in order for the laboratory to be granted a certificate by the National Drug Quality Control and Valuation Laboratory, LANACOME, to start the first tests.

The aim of the programme is to curb the problem of reagent shortage and also gain monopoly of the market in Cameroon and the CEMAC zone. The IMPM project was conceived in 2015 with the help of the SFRI factory in Bordeaux, France to assist Cameroon produce reagents. IMPM’s objective is to carry out application programmes to ensure the development of research.