The Prequalification of Medicines Programme (PQP), initiated in 2001, is a service provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) to facilitate access to medicines that meet unified international standards of quality, safety and efficacy for HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and reproductive health.

The work is done via stringent assessment of pharmaceutical product dossiers; inspection of pharmaceutical manufacturing sites (both for finished dosage forms and active pharmaceutical ingredients) and contract research organizations (CROs); prequalification of pharmaceutical quality control laboratories (QCLs); and advocacy for medicines of assured quality.

Forty products were added to the list of prequalified medicines in 2008, an increase from 21 products in 2007. The total number of prequalified medicines is currently 196.

A major achievement in 2008 was the prequalification of new products specially designed to treat HIV/AIDS in children, as well as the first fixed dose combination tablets of artesunate and amodiaquine to treat malaria. These represent a considerable breakthrough in making available the user-friendly formulations that will also improve efficacy of treatment...