The Drug Information Centre (DIC) of Maharashtra State Pharmacy Council (MSPC) is all set to bring out indigenous CD based interactive software to detect drug to drug interactions in any given prescription, targeting awareness among healthcare professionals on importance of reporting Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs).

The centre has launched a Drug Interaction Checker for Prescriptions (DICP) software in CD, covering five therapeutic systems antihypertensive, antidiabetic, antianginals, lipid lowering and antibiotics, by the end of November 2006. The initiative is the first part of the DIC's endeavour to support the national pharmacovigilance programme, as the centre is planning to come up with a second part for the CD within two months. The second part will cover two major systems, drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis, with options for checking the interactions for the medicines in various conditions.

The easy-to-use software is loaded with thousands of brands with corresponding generic drug names database, to provide interaction message on screen on request by entering prescription details. The database consists materials from all the possible reference literature including British National Pharmacopoeia and Micromedex's Drugdex, USA, according to the DIC officials.