Pharmacovigilance committee to draw roadmap for PvPI programme shortly

The first meeting of the National Coordinating Centre (NCC) for Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) will be held on February 15 at Indian Council of Medial Research (ICMR) in Delhi. The meeting assumes significance as it will discuss some of the pressing matters that needs that have to be focused to make the PvPI more effective in future.

Dr G N Singh, secretary and scientific director of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), nodal agency for the PvPI, informed that this meeting will be of high importance as the meeting is aimed at discussing future course of the PvPI programme of the country, so that it will enable safe and judicious use of medicines by effectively monitoring adverse drug reactions (ADR's) of the same on the Indian population.

The meeting will be chaired by Dr V M Katoch who is the secretary of the Department of Health Research and also the director general of ICMR and will be attended by 14 members of the NCC committee, which was set up by the union health ministry last year. 

“Our main agenda would be to discuss drafting of new roadmap for the PvPI programme, so that we can also generate independent data on the safety of medicines that will be at par with global drug safety monitoring standards. Apart from that, we will also be discussing other important aspects focusing on the current issues with respect to PvPI so that we can adopt more progressive approach towards strengthening it,” said Dr Singh.

Another important issue that will be discussed during this meet is how to distribute the funds for the PvPI programme in the coming financial year. According to reports, the government has demanded the Planning Commission (PC) to allot Rs.2 crore specifically for the programme in the 12th Five Year Plan from 2012 to 2017. 

However Dr Singh informed that major chunk of the funds if allotted will be invested to hire qualified manpower specifically dedicated to help in improving the delivery of services of the PvPI and also at upgrading the infrastructure accordingly. 

With respect to increasing the number of ADR centres across the country, Dr Singh informed that for the time being, IPC will not be adding new ADR centres to take part in the PvPI, as the government has limited the number to 75 for the current financial year. Recently the government had announced that they do not intent to increase the number of ADR centres in this financial year beyond 75 centres, due to lack of capacity and manpower.

At present, there are 62 ADR centres established across the country, in phased manner, to monitor ADRs in the Indian population and create awareness amongst healthcare professionals about the importance of ADR reporting in India. Initiatives are being taken by the IPC to add 13 new ADR monitoring centres across the country by March 2012, which will make the total count to 75.

Source: PB

by

Akshaya Srikanth, Suja Nair Shirodkar*

Pharm.D Intern

Hyderabad, India