Medicine Quality Monitoring Globe disclaimer, caveats and data access & use
Medicine Quality Monitoring (MQM) Globe Takedown Statement
Our MQM Globe is subject to a takedown policy. If we are contacted by a potential rights-holder who objects to the presence of material online, we will remove the material in question from our website until we have been able to assess the case. Where material is removed for valid reasons of copyright, its removal will be considered as lasting until copyright in the material expires, or until the rights-holder agrees that the material can be reinstated.
To contact us about removal of material, please email us at medicinequality@iddo.org.
‘Lay press articles’ section: The System
This system aggregates, tabulates and maps publicly available information on the quality of medical products globally from the non-peer reviewed lay literature, including online newspapers and websites. The information is extracted from these resources and responsibility for the accuracy of these data and their interpretation rests with the primary resource. As the Essential Medicines Surveyor represents data from the scientific literature we expect that it will be more reliable and trustworthy than those data represented in the MQM Globe. The information in the MQM Globe usually will not have scientific confirmation. Therefore, please interpret the information in the MQM Globe with the greatest caution. We regard such reports as early warnings of potential problems that need further investigation, if not already conducted.
The data are geographically heterogeneous and an important caveat is that no/few news or reports from a country or area does not imply that medical product quality there is good but that there are no/few accessible data from that country or area. Similarly, many news and reports of poor quality medical products in a country does not imply that medical product quality there is universally grave in comparison to elsewhere. Countries with many news reports should be lauded for facilitating such reporting. In addition, although we endeavour to include published corrections of previously published news we cannot guarantee that these are included.
Importantly there is often confusion in the lay literature between the terms falsified, substandard, spurious, fraudulent, degraded and counterfeit. Please interpret the use of these terms with great caution. See the WHO recommended terms.
If you notice any errors or omissions please contact us at medicinequality@iddo.org.
‘Regulatory & alert webpages’ section
Not all regulatory authorities/governments have webpages. In addition, the Medicine Quality Research Group may have not identified some existing webpages. Thus some countries do not currently have webpages available on the Regulatory Webpages section.
For certain countries and/or entities, we only display certain types of information (for example batch recalls) because we did not find publicly available information on other types of incident (for example seizures of falsified medicines).
Some authorities only supervise certain product categories (e.g. medicines but not necessarily medical devices) or they do supervision of several but the webpage identified by our team only contains information for one category.
Data access and use
The Globe is freely accessible and pdf reports of up to 100 articles data per report are freely downloadable through the download button. If you use the reports in your work we would be grateful if the ‘Medicine Quality Research Group and the Infectious Disease Data Observatory Medicine Quality Monitoring Globe’ could be acknowledged. If you would like to download more than 100 articles, please contact medicinequality@iddo.org with a brief proposal of what the data will be used for.
University of Oxford
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by the University of Oxford and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk and based on the original news report. In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, loss of data or profits, or loss of business. Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of the University of Oxford. We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them. Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, the University of Oxford takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
Please also see IDDO's terms of use.