Medicine quality
The impact of improvements in diagnosis, prevention and treatment for multiple diseases is compromised if the medical products used are substandard or falsified (SF); they negate many of the benefits of modern health care. There has been relatively little research in this field and we are expanding our innovative and multidisciplinary work to try to answer key gaps in the evidence base to inform policy and interventions.
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MORU 2019. Photographer: Gerhard Jørén.
Research aims
- Improve our understanding of the epidemiology of substandard and falsified medical products and their impact on patient outcomes, health systems and antimicrobial resistance;
- Improve understanding of the diagnostic accuracy and implementation of innovative screening technologies for post-market surveillance of medicines and vaccines;
- Evaluate innovative techniques for pharmaceutical forensics, to better understand falsified medicine trade routes;
- Engage with health workers and policy makers on how to intervene to improve the quality of the global medicine supply.
We organised the Medicine Quality and Public Health Conference in Oxford in 2018 and we hope to organise a further event in 2025. We also help organise informal medicine quality meetings among the research community and others interested in the topic. We held an informal meeting in October 2024, where experts from across Europe joined forces to discuss research on substandard and falsified medical products and how to translate the evidence into policy and implementation
The MQRG is part of the NDM Centre for Global Health Research, the Mahidol Oxford Research Unit in Bangkok, Thailand, and the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO) in Oxford.
Within IDDO we have created systems for collating and curating information on substandard & falsified medical product reports in the lay literature Medicine Quality Monitoring Globe, including for COVID-19 medical products Medical Product Quality Reports on COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 medical products, and, for the scientific literature in the Medicine Quality Scientific Literature Surveyor.
Current projects
- Forensic epidemiology and impact of Substandard and Falsified Antimicrobials (FORESFA - CGHR website)
- Vaccine Identity Evaluation ( VIE - CGHR website)
- AntiBiotic ACcess and USe (ABACUS website)
- DAshboard for Field-pOrtable screening Devices usIng scientific Literature evidence (DAFODIL - CGHR website): accessible evidence on field screening technologies to identify substandard and falsified medicines in post-market surveillance
- The DEG-EG Project: Safety of medicinal syrups for children (CGHR website)
- Epione (WHO app): a tool to improve the implementation, accuracy and efficiency of medicine quality surveys
COVID-19 medical products and vaccines
Visit our page on the COVID-19 pandemic, with reports on medical products and on COVID-19 vaccines