Dr. HABYALIMANA Vedaste

Head of Drugs Department

Dr. Vedaste HABYALIMANA is the Head of the Drugs Department at the Rwanda FDA since April 2024. He brings with him a wealth of experience, having previously held the position of head of the former Food and Drugs Assessment and Registration Department, as well as serving as the Quality Assurance Analyst at Rwanda FDA.

Dr. Vedaste is highly proficient in the development and coordination of Quality Management Systems (QMS) and has played a key role in the process of certifying Rwanda FDA’s QMS to the ISO 9001:2015 standard. He has also been involved in WHO benchmarking for maturity level 3 (ML3), an essential requirement for the regulation of vaccine manufacturing and vaccine lot release processes.

With over 15 years of practical experience in Quality Assurance and Quality Control of essential medicines and health commodities, Dr. Vedaste has held significant roles at LABOPHAR (Pharmaceutical Laboratory of Rwanda) and the Rwanda Biomedical Center / Medical Procurement and Production Division (RBC/MPPD currently RMS Ltd.).

Educationally, Dr. Vedaste holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the National University of Rwanda (currently the University of Rwanda), as well as a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences – with a specialization in Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry from the University of Liège (ULiège, Belgium). His scientific experience includes research conducted at the Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry (LPAC) in the Center of Interdisciplinary Research on Medicines (CIRM) of ULiège, Belgium.

Dr. Vedaste actively contributes to academia as a part-time Lecturer and Theses Supervisor in the Pharmacy Department at the University of Rwanda / College of Medicine and Health Sciences (UR-CMHS), and at the EAC-Regional Center of Excellence for Vaccines, Immunization and Health Supply Chain Management (UR-HSCM). Additionally, he focuses his research on the Quality of medicines and other health commodities, Systems compliance with international standards/guidelines, and application of best practices (GxP), among other critical areas.