Importance of Pharmacovigilance

Pharmacovigilance is a wide term to explain drug safety. It explains the collection, safety, analysis, prevention, and monitoring of the ill-effects of drugs and therapies. It is a process-driven and methodical area within the pharmaceutical industry.

This is a safety study of commercially accessible drugs that are tested under real-world conditions or in real-time clinical use in large communities. Pharmacovigilance aims to identify unknown safety problems as early as possible. It also aims to detect an increase in the frequency of these misbehavior's , to quantify the risks, and to avoid the patients from being affected unnecessarily. Pharmacovigilance encourages education and clinical training by providing clinical research courses, pharmacovigilance courses, clinical research training etc. 

Drug professionals' knowledge and awareness of a drug's safety profile plays a fundamental role in patient well-being. These professionals should be well aware of drug side effects and how often they occur. They are also responsible for reporting new or unknown side effects of medications. Healthcare professionals should also be well aware that no drug is entirely safe to consume. They must execute it with a certain amount of uncertainty.

While developing, manufacturing and marketing any medicine /drug, the manufacturing company must adhere to strict and firm rules and regulations. These rules and regulations must mainly focus on consumer safety. Significance of Pharmacovigilance is as follows:

1)      Power and Authority:

The higher-ranking member of the drug safety team has the authority to recommend the end of the development of a specific drug. This suggestion terminates the development cycle of the drug. These senior leaders also own the power to do exactly the opposite.

2)      Consumer Safety and Awareness:

Pharmacovigilance ensures the overall patient safety and well-being throughout the development cycle, even after a drug has been made available on the market. Pharmacovigilance is the continuous supervising of the drugs to detect new side effects and symptoms, or the regular collection and reporting of new data to authorities. Unlike most departments in a pharmaceutical company, the field of pharmacovigilance focuses solely on patient’s well-being.

3)      Moving Forward :

The drug safety profile keeps the pharmaceutical business moving. This means that it shall work on a extremely cross-functional basis. This division of the company holds most of the power and can easily lead to new potential business models as well as drug probabilities.

Pharmacovigilance has been made responsive and developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) with the main purpose of responding to specific needs for detailed safety profile of drugs. With today's increasingly and growing advanced technology and rapid drug development, pharmacovigilance is of great importance and necessity.