E-DRUG: Medical Product Quality Report: COVID-19 issues #10
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Dear colleagues,
The COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied by a multitude of reports of
substandard and falsified (SF) medical products, ranging from personal
protective equipment (PPE) to diagnostic tests, medicines, and vaccines. In
response to this, we started a system for collecting, curating, and
visualizing information available in the public domain on quality concerns
related to COVID-19 medical products. The Medical Product Quality Reports
hold reports from scientific literature, public alerts/warnings, and lay
press:
https://www.iddo.org/mq/research/medical-product-quality-reports.
The tenth issue, covering the month of March 2021, is now available and
reports on 49 different incidents of SF medical products in 46 different
articles from searches in Google News.
It is out at
https://www.iddo.org/document/medical-product-quality-report-covid-19-issues-issue-10-march-2021-main-text-plus-annexes
Many of the incidents (21) concerned diverted, substandard or falsified
COVID-19 vaccines. For other COVID-19 related medical products the SF wave
has slowed down, but substandard and falsified hand sanitisers, masks,
gloves, and medicines are still being distributed and used. We remain very
concerned at the global risk of substandard and falsified COVID-19 medical
products and especially vaccines. We urge much more international
coordination to mitigate the risks.
Any remarks or additions to content are greatly appreciated
(please write to medicinequality@iddo.org).
We would be delighted if you could disseminate this information within your network.
Very best wishes,
Kerlijn Van Assche, Céline Caillet, Paul N Newton
Medicine Quality Research Group, Infectious Diseases Data Observatory
(IDDO) & Mahidol Oxford Research Unit (MORU), Centre for Tropical Medicine
& Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford,
Oxford, UK
Kerlijn Van Assche <kerlijn.vanassche@iddo.org>