The newly formed state of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states have no Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) centres to record drug reactions in the government hospitals. According to Dr K C Singhal, founder and patron of the Society of Phamracovigilance, both the states though boast of having advanced healthcare infrastructure and are implementing innovative healthcare schemes like ‘Aarogyasri’ for the poor, have failed to establish even a single adverse drug reaction centre in the government hospitals.

In Telangana and Andhra Pradesh there are 14 government medical colleges and 17 private medical colleges. But none of these medical colleges and the government hospitals in both the states has the adverse drug reaction recording centres. Because of this, thousands of patients who are victims of adverse drug reactions are going undetected. Moreover the awareness levels among the patients and the common public to report the adverse drug reaction is also lacking.

Expressing concern over a large number of medicinal drugs with adverse reactions flooding the markets, Dr Singhal said, “The cough syrups containing ‘Codeine’ is a typical example of noted ADR among the public. It needs to be taken back completely from the market as it is causing adverse reactions.”

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are responsible for the death of nearly 50 out of every 1,000 patients admitted to hospitals, said Dr Srinubabu Gedela, managing director, Omics Group Inc. Speaking at ‘Pharmacovigilance and Clinical Trials 2014’ conference last week, he said that over 150 drugs had been withdrawn from the market due to adverse reactions in the past 50 years.  Currently, more than 10,000 licensed drug manufacturers operate in India producing over one lakh branded and generic formulations in India. ADRs are estimated to cause nearly 5 to 7 per cent of all hospital admissions, according to industry experts.

“Usually any drug reactions by patients are again referred to the doctors. Accordingly the doctors prescribe the remedies. But officially there are no centres to record these drug reactions,” says M. Bhaskar, a senior doctor.

Pharmacovigilance is the serious subject that refers to detection, understanding and prevention of ADRs. For this Union government has set up about 150 ADR centres across the country and is planning to set up at least 1 ADR monitoring centre in all the medical colleges by the end of 2015 under the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI).