DRAP officers trained in pharmacovigilance

Islamabad: A training session was organised on pharmacovigilance by the Sonafi Aventis on the premises of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan here.

The event was meant for the DRAP officers. On the occasion, DRAP Chief Executive Officer Dr. Sheikh Akhter Hussain said the pharmacovigilance was an important component of medicine safety system and that his organisation was adamant at functioning of a central pharmacovigilance centre to coordinate with the provinces.

"We have taken various steps to make the pharmacovigilance system in Pakistan more effective for Adverse Drug Reaction (ADRs) reporting, signal detection and data sharing with all stakeholder after due assessment of the reported drug safety cases," he said.

Trainer Anton Klishin, multi-country safety head from Sanofi-Aventis, Ukraine, emphasised the need for the introduction of risk management plan and signal detection and periodic reporting. The DRAP chief said the drug regulator had already initiated the process of capacity building of pharmacovigilance in Pakistan.

"Few of the strategic steps taken in this context include associate membership of WHO Uppsala Monitoring Centre, Subscription of VigiFlow system, deployment of Integrated Regulatory Information management System (IRIMS) for reporting of adverse drug reactions reports," he said.