Torloni MR, Bonet M, Betrán AP, Ribeiro-do-Valle CC, Widmer M.
PLOS ONE, 2020.

Research indicates that the quality of medicines to manage pregnancy complications can be a contributing factor to high rates of maternal mortality in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC). This systematic review identifies, critically appraises, and synthesizes findings on studies related to the quality of medicines in LMIC for the management of hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia/eclampsia and sepsis. Findings indicate that the problem with the quality of medicines available is more evident for uterotonics (nearly 50% failure rates), and critical for ergometrine (75% failure rates). In addition, 1 in 7 injectable antibiotics samples (13%) and 1 in 29 magnesium sulfate samples (3.4%) were found to be of low quality.