The Drug Information Centre (DIC) of Maharashtra State Pharmacy Council (MSPC) is all set to bring out indigenous CD based interactive softwares 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.

Initially, the centre is out in the field with 1000 CDs of the first part, expecting sufficient feed back from the healthcare professionals from hospitals, pharmacists including those in clinical practice, Indian Medical Association and doctors on various fields. By collecting the feedback, the centre will formulate an up gradation policy for the CDs, which will probably to conduct revision once in three or six months, added sources.

"The CDs are intended to support the government initiative on pharmacovigilance, and we have sent around 50 CDs to experts in various segments for feedback.

The future policy including any plans to launch another such project will be decided once after analysing the feedback on this project," Gurunath Sule, Project Specialist, DIC, MSPC told Pharmabiz. The CD has been granted a copyright registration number by Copyright Office of Govt. of India and is available in a cost of Rs 750 per disc. He added that the CDs are not prepared to use as a medical substitution, but only to direct the healthcare professional on the drug-drug interaction.