Adverse drug reaction reporting in curriculum

Chennai: In an effort that could go a long way in preventing complications arising out of drugs use and standardisation of drugs across the country the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) has suggested to the Pharmacy Council of India and Nursing Council of India to include pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting as part of the educational curriculum in pharmacy institutions.

Also, pharmacy institutions could be granted recognition as ADR monitoring centre if the institute is equipped with all infrastructure facilities such as hospital. These recommendations were made recently by the IPC, which is an autonomous institution under the Union health and family welfare ministry. The recommendations were put forth as part of the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI).

The IPC, which is a National Coordination  Centre (NCC)  for PvPI has proposed to establish its centres in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata  soon to facilitate formulation of safety related regulatory decisions for medicines more efficiently besides enhance the monitoring and compliance of all the patient safety measures through PvPI.In another significant development, the commission plans to ensure maximum participation in the PvPI programme by establishing 50 ADR monitoring centres by this year end. It has already identified 30 ADR locations in various parts of the country.

“The IPC is working round the clock to identify and bring in as many health institutions under its ambit aiming to create awareness among healthcare professionals on the importance of ADR reporting in India and efficiently monitor benefit-risk profile of medicines to generate independent, evidence based recommendations on the safety of medicines.