Twinning Turkey. Formez Has Been Awarded a New Project in the Field of Health

On 12 February 2011, Italy officially received the news that a new project in Turkey in the field of public health entitled “Quality Control Tests for Human Vaccines and Sera" was awarded.
The award of the project has been enabled by the institutional synergy that Formez PA has developed and consolidated with the Italian Ministry of Health and the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS), as well as through previous twinning experiences which allowed for the involvement of the Bulgarian Ministry of Health and its National Centre of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases (NCIPD).
The project which at the moment is in the phase of preparation and whose activities will begin in September 2011, is led by ISS, whilst the political-institutional supervision is assigned to the Italian Ministry of Health with the participation of Bulgaria's NCIPD. The main beneficiary of the project is the Refik Saydam National Public Health Agency (RSNPHA) – Turkey's Ministry of Health.
The activities will last for 24 months with a total budget of 2,085,000 euros and will aim at developing EU policies for implementing the aquis communautaire in the field of free circulation of goods and the protection of public health, through actions of capacity building as regards the procedures on quality control of the laboratories for human vaccines and sera.
The project will have a significant impact on Turkish society in the field of protection and promotion of consumers' health, and on the reduction of illness incidence rates, as well as on the free circulation of goods by reducing the time required for realising lots and on the introduction of new techniques and labs for the analysis of a wider range of vaccines and sera. The achievement of the OMCL (Official Medicinal Control Laboratory) bylaws of Turkish laboratories, will result in the economic contribution for the Turkish healthcare system, thus improving the conditions for the future production of national vaccines. Furthermore, the project envisages increased alternative testing methods aiming at replacing experiments on animals, and contributing to reducing the number of laboratory animals used for tests, in line with the EU legislation on the protection of animals and the environment.
The project activities will be realized by experts from ISS, NCIPD and the Italian Ministry of Health, while Formez will deal with the organisational coordination of the logistic-procedural activities and the financial management of the project.