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The physicians as well as the pharmacists must make it a point to identify the adverse reactions of drugs and report the same to the drug regulatory authorities as early as possible as many of the drugs used in India were banned in many countries, according to Dr Y K Gupta, national scientific coordinator of the pharmacovigilance programme of India (PvPI).
He was speaking on the subject, ‘evolution of pharmacovigilance in India’, at a function organised by Coimbatore based pharmacovigilance consulting company, Oviya Medsafe.
According to him, the concept of pharmacovigilance has to be taken to the masses because the common man must know the proper usage of medicines he often consumes. Similarly, the concept should be included as a regular subject in the program of continuing medical education (CME) for the medical practitioners. Awareness needs to be given to the Indian Medical Association and to the students of medicine, pharmacy and life sciences.
Dr. Gupta talked about different stages of drug development including molecular modeling, animal studies and phases of clinical trials. He said there is tremendous scope for job opportunities for pharmacy qualified graduates, especially for Pharm D holders, in the field of pharmacovigilance, which is a genuine service to the mankind.
Dr N Shanthi, professor & head of the department of pharmacology, Coimbatore Medical College, while addressing the audience, said students of medicine as well as of pharmacy should be encouraged to get oriented with pharmacovigilance and choose it as a career opportunity. She said academia-industry collaboration is much needed for advancing the science of pharmacovigilance.
Indu Nambiar, senior manager at Boehringer Ingelheim India Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, has opined that the country needs a robust pharmacovigilance system, and continuous improvement is the key for keeping quality in drugs.
According to Vasumathi Sriganesh, CEO of QMed Knowledge Foundation in Mumbai, pharmacovigilance should be considered as a discipline as it is a significant component of patient safety measures. The students of medicine should take up this science as an area of learning and practice.
Dr J Vijay Venkatraman, managing director of Oviya Medsafe said the company is offering professional services to many pharmaceutical companies across the country.
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