Kingston, Jamaica. July 20, 2026. The Pharmacy Unit within the Ministry of Health and Human Services (MoHHS) in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) began a transformative journey in 2019 with the establishment of the national pharmacovigilance programme. The programme known as the Turks and Caicos Islands Pharmacovigilance Programme (TPP) was developed with a view to strengthen the country’s medicines regulatory framework and by virtue improve the effective monitoring of drug/patient safety.
Importantly, the TPP emanated from the National Pharmaceutical Policy (NPP) that includes a commitment to establish a policy strategy and robust mechanisms to ensure that only safe, effective and quality-assured medicines are utilised in the TCI. Notably, this resulted from a need to:
- Implement procedures to register medicines and suppliers of medicines
- Combat the importation and use of substandard and counterfeit medicines
- Analyse and test medicines imported and used in the TCI
- Monitor and report adverse drug reactions
In support of the above commitment, the MoHHS welcomed and accepted the opportunity to partner with the Caribbean Public Health Agency Medicines Quality Control and Surveillance Department’s (CARPHA MQCSD) risk-based post-market surveillance of medicines programme in 2021 (testing and analysis of medicines to provide data on their quality and efficacy) to strengthen both the competencies of regulatory personnel and the medicines regulatory system, which had evident weaknesses.
Consequently, when the MoHHS submitted its first medicine sample for analysis and testing on July 29, 2021, and subsequently received its first ever certificate of analysis on November 11, 2021, through the MQCSD programme, it marked a significant milestone in the history of the TCI. This initial step created and cemented a critical pathway to provide and guarantee improved medicines surveillance and hence enhance medicines safety for current and future generations residing in the TCI.
Since joining the MQCSD programme, the MoHHS has submitted 21 samples of various medicines. These medicines are known antihypertensives, an antidiabetic, an analgesic (pain-relieving) and a corticosteroid. Notably, the growth of the programme is reflected in the marked increase in the number of samples, from 2 in 2021 to 15 in 2025. 20 of the 21 samples, 95% met the required standards. This high compliance rate reflects the overall quality of medicines entering the TCI market, while validating the importance of market surveillance programmes for medicines supported by laboratory testing.
The MoHHS has circulated several media releases to improve the public’s knowledge and awareness of both the TPP and the MQCSD programme, and how it is impacting medicines’ safety in the TCI, including when certificates of analysis are issued by CARPHA. An increase in the number of adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports provides an indicator of the way in which the programme appears to be gaining traction in the TCI.
The MoHHS, as a quality measure, is utilising an ADR Reporting Form as a data gathering tool, not only for suspected adverse drug reactions, but also for the reporting of substandard and falsified medicines. As such, the tool is being actively used to survey medicines that warrant analysis and testing, and by virtue improve medicines and patient safety.
In light of the above, the MoHHS has observed gradual and steady success in the CARPHA MQCSD and TPP programmes, and remains steadfast in its commitment to develop and strengthen the necessary legislative framework to ensure that analysis and testing of medicines is a fixture in the lives of TCI residents for the foreseeable future.
To learn more about the MQCSD and the success in the TCI, visit our website - https://carpha.org/What-WeDo/MQCSD/Latest-News-and-Publications
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Medicines Quality Control Laboratory Test -Disintegration
Medicines Quality Control Laboratory Test - Dissolution
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