Mission Statement

History

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every country in the world. It is well documented that those most susceptible to the worst outcomes of COVID-19 are the immunocompromised and those with underlying comorbidities. Therefore, patients requiring treatment for COVID-19 will also be on additional medication, posing a risk for drug-drug interactions (DDIs). In order to address this, the Liverpool Drug Interactions website team developed this freely available drug interactions resource to provide information on the likelihood of interactions between the experimental agents used for the treatment of COVID-19 and commonly prescribed co-medications.

Ethos

The Liverpool Drug Interactions resources are widely utilised, supporting international guidelines and policies. We strongly believe that drug information should be offered free of charge, be independent, and be evidence-based and transparent. We are convinced that quality of care is vitally important, particularly when faced with all the challenges of a new disease and where patient harms from DDIs may pass unnoticed. We actively promote the use of our resources to healthcare providers and patients to enable rapid screening of DDIs.

We are rightly expected to conduct ourselves in an ethical and transparent manner – without bias, and without the perception of bias. Equally, support from the Pharmaceutical Industry, Societies and Charities has yielded patient benefits which would not otherwise have accrued through exclusive reliance on local health services or funding agencies.

• Funding: A large part of our funding is from industry, with the remainder through grants from societies, or research support. We are grateful for the generosity of all our supporters, without which our DDI resources cannot exist
• Industry partnerships: We recognise and promote partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry which provides insight through access in advance of, or to unpublished data, as well as the ability to ask key questions that allow us to form our own judgements. Our activities are strictly governed by principles established by the UK ABPI.
• Editorial content remains independent: Whilst we encourage and welcome comments from individuals and organisations, the judgements made are entirely our own with oversight from our Editorial Board. There is no linkage between funding and any particular recommendation.
• Review: We are occasionally challenged by our users over certain drug interaction calls we have made, and while this may prompt a review, any subsequent change is only made by the editorial team using robust evaluation criteria we have established around strength of recommendation and quality of evidence.
• Education: We have an active programme of education alongside our DDI resources, always with the aim of promoting safe and effective prescribing. We do not engage in activity which is intended to be promotional, favouring one product above another.
• Transparency: Our sponsors are acknowledged across all resources, and any potential conflicts declared for all our activities. Members of our team in the UK also make annual declarations to our employing institutions, and to the ABPI Disclosure UK public database.