A pioneering conference will bring leading professionals from all over the world to Oxford, UK to discuss strategies for tackling poor quality medical products on a global scale.

A new study published today reveals the challenges of establishing sustainable and effective networks to tackle resistance to antimicrobial medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The fourth Quality of Medical Products and Public Health course will take place in Oxford this year, from 17-21 September, at Wolfson College. This multidisciplinary course is aimed at professionals who are interested in the quality of medical products. The application deadline is 18 May.

Two new WHO publications highlight the prevalence and impact of substandard and falsified medical products. An estimated 1 in 10 medical products circulating in low- and middle-income countries is either substandard or falsified, according to new research from the World Health Organization (WHO).

New literature review on soil-transmitted helminths provides compelling evidence for the need to develop a data sharing platform to monitor and improve treatment outcomes for this neglected tropical disease.

The IDDO team will be attending this year’s American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) Annual Meeting held in Baltimore, USA. Visit the Centre for Tropical Medicine & Global Health booth (number 312) in the exhibition area to meet staff members.

The IDDO and Be-cause health Medicine Quality teams will be addressing the issue of poor quality medicines at the forthcoming European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health (ECTMIH) in Antwerp, Belgium.

The WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN) has been shortlisted for a 2017 Times Higher Education (THE) Award in the ‘International Collaboration of the Year’ category.

Combining patient data from visceral leishmaniasis (VL) clinical trials would give scientists and clinicians more tools to understand and treat the disease which can be fatal if untreated.

The World Health Assembly has agreed new terminology that aims to establish a common understanding of key terms used to describe poor quality medical products.

A pioneering academic conference will bring together, for the first time, people from all over the world dealing with the problem of poor quality medicines and their impact on public health.

The third Quality of Medical Products and Public Health course will take place in Boston, USA this year, from 10-14 July. The course is a pioneering initiative developed by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of Oxford.

A booklet aimed at the general public examines the supply chain and how market globalisation put the quality of medicines at stake.

An investigation conducted by the international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) revealed that over a 1,000 people in a remote area of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ingested pills of diazepam which actually contained haloperidol.

Congratulations to Prof Sir Nicholas White, former chair of the WWARN Board, who was recently appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to tropical medicine and global health.

In an article published today in The BMJ’s online Christmas edition, Prof Paul Newton, Head of the Medicine Quality Group at the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory, visits the history of falsified medicines and highlights what needs to be done to avert a problem that threatens us all.

The growing inefficacy of the drugs currently available to treat visceral leishmaniasis (VL) needs to be addressed with harmonised research procedures, in order to discriminate resistant and susceptible strains, and establish a resistance ‘breakpoint’.

The Infectious Diseases Data Observatory will be at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 2016 Annual Meeting, in Atlanta, discussing the importance of responsible data sharing and poor quality medicines.

The proliferation of poor quality medicines has been described as a global pandemic that threatens the lives of millions. A new project will assess a variety of portable and handheld devices used to assess the quality of medicines.

A new article published in The BMJ outlines experiences and investigates the advantages and costs of different data sharing models.