E-DRUG: Quality of medical products used in cardiovascular diseases treatment and prevention
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A new study by the Medicine Quality Research Group (MQRG) suggests that
there are important but neglected issues with falsified and substandard
medicines and medical products used to prevent and treat cardiovascular
diseases.
From the very limited available data, the MQRG scientists of the MORU
Tropical Health Network and Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO)
found that about one fifth of medicines sampled were poor quality. The
researchers found data on 4,703 samples in the literature and of these 17.5
per cent were falsified or substandard, but the sample size is small in
relation to the vast global trade in medical products for cardiovascular
diseases prevention and treatment and firm conclusions about prevalence
cannot be made. Due to the inadequacy of the underlying data they do not
imply that 20% of cardiovascular medicines are substandard and falsified
globally, just that we have a problem that needs investigation and
interventions.
Recalls and seizures of substandard and falsified cardiovascular medical
devices were described, with 181 deaths attributed to substandard and
falsified cardiovascular medical devices.
Due to their vital role in cardiovascular diseases management, poor quality
cardiovascular medical products will inevitably have adverse health
impacts for patients, both short and long term, and can be life-threatening.
Although most studies investigating this issue come from financially poor
countries, the issue of poor quality medicines is a global problem. In
addition, the quality of cardiovascular medicines with a 'Narrow
therapeutic index' (i.e. for which reduced or increased drug concentrations
will lead to potentially very severe undesired effects in patients) has
been a neglected research area.
This systematic review recommends improvements should be made to the
current reporting system to facilitate evidence aggregation to better
understand the global burden of this problem and inform interventions.
To read the full paper view
https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/9/e006523.full
The data is also mapped on the online medicine quality scientific
literature surveyor at:
https://www.iddo.org/mqsurveyor/#cardiovascular
Celine Caillet and the MQRG team
Deputy Head of the Medicine Quality Research Group
Centre for Tropical Medicine & Global Health & MORU Tropical Health Network
& Infectious Diseases Data Observatory
University of Oxford
celine.caillet@iddo.org