Medicine Quality Scientific Literature Surveyor

Substandard and falsified (SF) medical products (medicines, vaccines, diagnostic tests and devices) pose an immediate danger to many people worldwide, and in the case of anti-infectives, they could also increase the threat of drug resistance emerging and spreading. A major challenge in preventing this is a lack of accessible and reliable information on how widespread they really are. This new mapping tool visualises these data and it will help scientists, health professionals and officials fill critical information gaps. 

The tool delivers summaries of published scientific reports on the quality of communicable diseases [antimalarials, antiretrovirals, antibiotics, anti-tuberculosis] non-communicable diseases [antidiabetics and medical devices for diabetes management, cardiovascular medicines and medical devices], veterinary medicines, and vaccines across regions and over time, both in English and French.

It builds on the success of the Medicine Quality team’s work on WWARN’s existing Antimalarial Surveyor and future phased releases are planned that will expand its reach to other medical products.  

With increasing number of reports in the scientific literature of substandard and falsified medical products for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of COVID-19 we are developing a Surveyor database and map for these, including past reports of SF medicines being repurposed for COVID-19.

• Includes published scientific data describing the quality of antimalarials, antidiabetics and medical devices for diabetes management, antiretrovirals, antibiotics, anti-tuberculosis, veterinary medicines, cardiovascular medicines and medical devices and vaccines.
• Filters studies according to medicine, report type, collection type, medicine source and quality classification.
• Provides customised summaries of reports per country describing the quality of antimalarials, antidiabetics and medical devices for diabetes management, antiretrovirals, antibiotics, anti-tuberculosis, veterinary medicines, cardiovascular medicines and medical devices, vaccines – over time and location.
• Filters studies according to medicine, report type, collection type, medicine source and quality classification.
• Supports national and international organisations working to provide patients with quality-assured, effective medicines.

The tool is now available in French - voir le "Medicine Quality Scientific Literature Surveyor" en français.

Additional information 

• For more information about the tool see the user guide.
• For reports in the lay press on SF medical products please see the Medicine Quality Monitoring Globe
• Resources – key links to alert lists, pharmaceutical industry, medicine regulatory authorities etc 
• Methodology – more information about the data categories, report and collection types and classifications 
• Disclaimer and caveats
• Acknowledgements

Data access and use

The map is freely accessible and the data behind it is freely downloadable through the download button. If you use the data in your work we would be grateful if the ‘Medicine Quality Research Group and the Infectious Disease Data Observatory Medicine Quality Scientific Literature Surveyor’ could be acknowledged. Please contact medicinequality@iddo.org if you need further information.

Please note: There are issues to download the country reports in Safari for Mac that will soon be fixed - our sincere apologies for any inconvenience.

To find out about contributing MQ data to IDDO or helping us to improve the MQ Scientific Literature Surveyor, please email medicinequality@iddo.org

Find out more about IDDO’s Medicine Quality work.