THEME
Medicines and ethics
Poor-quality medicines are especially prevalent in low- and middle-income countries. They represent a threat for individual and public health, by causing therapeutic failure or direct toxicity, by contributing to the emergence of resistance, and by eroding trust in health systems. Unfortunately, they often go undetected (due to the lack of efficient reporting systems), or they are only detected after treatment failure or toxicity become evident.
Repressive measures may help fight those medicines that are falsified on purpose, but they will do little to stop the circulation of substandard medicines, which requires sustained capacity strengthening of national regulators, improved surveillance on international supply chains, and increased awareness of purchasers including international donors.
Thanks to the support of the DGD, the ITM manages a scientific portfolio focusing on access to quality-assured medicines in low- and middle-income countries, in close collaboration with the QUAMED group. Our specific activities include policy development, research, advocacy, networking and education.
Medical research is more and more delocalised to low- and middle-income countries, often for global health reasons (to address the local health needs). It is of paramount importance that such research is methodologically and ethically sound, and responsive to the needs of communities.
We animate the informal network of clinical researchers that previously operated under the frame of the Switching the Poles network. We stimulate exchange of view, scientific collaborations and ethical reflection.

Contact
Links
- Article: Can we call a research ethical if its governance is not fairly co-owned by the local researchers in the study country?
- Be-cause Health Working Group on Medicines
- PEAH
- Quamed
- Article: Towards a new structural approach to pharmaceutical innovation, intellectual property and public health: If not now, when?
- Article: Switching the poles of infectious diseases outbreaks: Time for a new gaze?
- Publications by Raffaella Ravinetto
- Video Prof Hans V. Hogerzeil: Access to new and expensive essential medicines, as part of universal health coverage
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- Toward a multidisciplinary approach in research on quality of medicines
- Analysis of the Quality Assurance and pharmaceutical procurement policies of a sample of European donors
- The lack of quality-assured sources of medicines on the global market: a survey to explore the priority needs of purchasers in the Belgian humanitarian sector