Mission Statement

History

Around 37 million individuals are living worldwide with HIV and although advances in therapy have yielded effective regimens, individual antiretroviral drugs are amongst the most therapeutically risky for drug-drug interactions (DDI) presenting significant risks to patients and a challenge for health care providers to ensure safe and appropriate prescribing. In order to address this, the Liverpool Drug Interactions website was established in 1999 by members of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool to provide a freely available drug-drug interaction resource.

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 have an international Steering Group with user involvement. We are convinced that quality of care is vitally important, particularly in resource- limited countries where health systems may be weak or fragmented, patient monitoring sparse, and where patient harms from DDIs may pass unnoticed. We actively promote the use of our Apps 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and promote partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry which provides insight through access in advance of, or to unpublished data, as well as the ability to ask key questions that allow us to form our own judgements.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.

Disclaimer

Information presented relates only to known or suspected effects of interacting medications, and is based on relevant data in the public domain. No clinical advice is given or implied, clinicians must exercise their own judgement in relation to the risks and benefits of combining drugs, which depend on factors beyond pharmacokinetic interactions between two drugs. The University of Liverpool shall not be held responsible for the application or use of any information it gives and the user shall hold the University of Liverpool harmless against any consequences arising from the same.