Mission

The service Medicines is focused on the quality of medicines, and particularly on the health risks linked to the intake of illegal and counterfeit medication. As National Reference Laboratory for analysis of medicines, the service carries out quality controls on widely used medications and their ingredients under contract from the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAGG).

Tasks

• Support the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products with various laboratory activities:
  • Check the ingredients contained in medicines, extemporaneous preparations, medicinal plant extracts, drugs, vitamin mixtures, protein and polypeptide treatments
  • Track down and identify counterfeit medicines
  • Analyse illegal formulations
• Contribute to the creation of monographs for the Belgian Pharmacopoeia Commission and the Therapeutic Magistral Formulary
• Carry out quality checks on foodstuffs for vitamins on behalf of the Federal Agency for Safety in the Food Chain (FAVV) and the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAGG)
• Check the conformity and stability of potassium iodide tablets
• Analyse cosmetics on behalf of DG4 'Animals Plants and Foodstuffs' of the FPS for Public Health.

Forms of collaboration

The service Medicines  is the National Reference Laboratory for Medicine Analysis for the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AFMPS-FAGG). Nationally this service works with the Federal Agency for Safety in the Food Chain (AFSCA-FAVV), the FPS for Internal Affairs, the FPS for Public Health, with the University of Liège (ULg) and the University of Ghent (UGent). At European level, the service belongs to the network of Official Medicine Control Laboratories (OMCL) which is coordinated by the ‘European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare’ (EDQM) in Strasbourg.