Around 170 doctors and pharmacists have been trained by the National Coordination Center (NCC) of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) under the Union health ministry as qualified pharmacovigilance personnel to further the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI). This programme is a part of the skill development programme in the country under the government’s ambitious Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana.
This will encourage and initiate process of creating a registry of skills, enable and mobilize a large number of healthcare professionals to take up training and acquire requisite skills for employment apart from capacity building and strengthening of Qualified Person for Pharmacovigilance (QPPv) as per the requirement of the Schedule Y of Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
“Besides this, such kind of training programmes are also currently run simultaneously at other adverse drug reaction (ADR) monitoring centres across the country to equip pharmacists and doctors to further the PvPI in the country,” says a senior health ministry official.
This is aimed at enhancing career prospects and employment opportunities in pharmacovigilance in government and private sector, career opportunities in regulatory system/CROs and public health programmes, acquiring basic knowledge in pharmacovigilance and abilities to deliver good pharmacovigilance practice at par with international requirement.
This will also impart hands on training to the young healthcare professionals in the field of pharmacovigilance. The programme aims to enhance the knowledge and skill of qualified pharmacovigilance professionals working for ensuring better patient safety as per the requirement of Schedule Y of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
Pharmacovigilance (PV) is a science that relates to detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse affects or any other drug related problem. To track adverse drug reactions in Indian population, Union health ministry launched PvPI which has outreach all over the country but only a small portion of healthcare professionals have formal training in pharmacovigilance. Following recent amendments in Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 and order from the Union health ministry to all states and Union territories, the avenues in pharmacovigilance has widened and has become a priority area.
Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission is spearheading the training programme called as "Skill Development Programme on Basics and Regulatory Aspects of Pharmacovigilance" which started from January 2017 onwards.
Duration of training programme is 10 days available round the year as per schedule. Target groups for the programme are young pharmacy, medical, paramedical professionals seeking career in pharmacovigilance, existing professionals in pharmacovigilance. Faculties are renowned experts from government teaching and corporate hospitals, regulatory authority, WHO, pharmaceutical industries, academic and research institutions. Venue for the programme is Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, Ghaziabad.