E-DRUG: Medical Product Quality Report: COVID-19 issues #9 - February
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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 ninth issue, covering the month of February 2021, is now available and
reports on 55 different incidents of SF medical products in 53 different
articles from searches in Google News.
It is available on the website of the MORU Tropical Health Network (Issue 9 - February 2021 on
https://www.tropmedres.ac/research-areas/medicine-quality/medicine-quality
and will soon be on the IDDO website.
Almost half of the incidents (24) are on diverted or SF vaccines. Falsified
vaccines were directly offered to people but criminals are also approaching
national and regional authorities.
Throughout February 2021, there were reports of falsified 3M masks, especially in the USA. Health Canada updated their list of recalled hand sanitisers that may pose health risks and the US FDA continued to send warning letters to manufacturers of SF hand sanitisers.
We urgently need joined-up interventions to reduce the risk of SF COVID-19
medical products on global public health, and more specifically COVID-19
vaccines, through significant enhancements in global capacity for their
prevention, detection and response.
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, Celine 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>