Experts gather to discuss medicine quality research
01 Nov 2024
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.
Over forty participants from various countries around the world, all based in Europe, including the UK, Sweden, France, Germany and Belgium, joined the in-person informal event at the Richard Doll Building, in Oxford, on the 24th of October.
Hosted by IDDO-MORU-CGHR’s Medicine Quality Research Group (MQRG), participants were mainly from research and public health groups researching substandard and falsified (SF) medical products and advocating for access to quality medicines.
In the morning 14 participants presented their work and the afternoon sessions were dedicated to informal discussions on different themes of interest, such as screening technologies to identify SF medicines (including DEG/EG contaminations in paediatric syrups – visit the The DEG-EG Project pages for more information of the MQRG work on this), the methodology for conducting medicine quality surveys with a focus on conflict areas, and how to raise awareness and engage with various communities around the issues.
Attendees greatly encouraged more such meetings. One participant said ‘There is a wonderful culture around these meetings’ and another added ‘Delighted to see this wide group continue to build momentum to another conference’.