IPC In Talks With BHU And IIT-Varanasi To Strategise On ADR Data For Patient Safety

Mumbai, 16 Jan 2019: The Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) is in talks with Benaras Hindu University (BHU) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Varanasi to strategise on collection and analysis of Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) data to address patient safety issues in India.

Plans are also on to integrate Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) with Prime Minister's flagship programme Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Scheme (AB-NHPS) for enhancing patient safety of 50 crore insurers covered under the scheme. 

AB-NHPS is targeted at poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers' families. As per Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 data, 8.03 crore families in rural and 2.33 crore in urban areas will be entitled to be covered under these scheme. AB-NHPS will have a defined benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family (on a family floater basis) per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitals.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, announced AB-NHPS will be rolled out on a pilot basis in certain states last year.

Further to conceive a broader platform for raising standards of patient safety through post marketing surveillance of drugs and medical devices as part of the PvPI, IPC recently also collaborated with Quality Council of India (QCI) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Scientific director of IPC Dr G N Singh said, “We had a discussion with IIT Director Pramod Jain to device a scientific plan to bring in best pharmacovigilance practices to tackle the growing number of ADRs which has reached the mark of 300,000 ADRs as of today.”

IPC is also planning to work with Sweden based Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) to develop a system for gathering, analysing and collating adverse drug reaction (ADR) data through a new integrated system of PV for patient safety. Many of the medicines used in public health programmes across the globe are new and have safety concerns associated with them.

We also held talks with Niti Aayog officials on how this initiative can be taken forward during a meet at Benaras Hindu University (BHU), he further added.

IPC has also been designated as the WHO collaborative centre for pharmacovigilance (PV) in public health. Currently, 131 countries across the globe are full members of the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring at UMC.

UMC is WHO's collaborating centre for international drug monitoring and IPC has been assigned to update information on ADRs that are being reported in India from across all its 250 adverse drug reaction monitoring centres (AMCs) through Vigiflow software to the UMC in Sweden.

Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had initiated PvPI in July 2010 with Ghaziabad-based IPC as the National Co-Ordinating Centre (NCC).Pharmabiz