Taking serious note of rising incidence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) involved in over the counter (OTC) drugs, Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has constituted a national level advisory committee for engagement of community pharmacists in Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI).

Pharmacists play a crucial role in healthcare system of India by assisting patients and by giving needful advise on OTC drugs.

The newly constituted committee will help in framing guidelines & training modules, to identify trainer /institute for imparting training to community pharmacists, and to bridge the existing lacunae in the system.

The committee was constituted under the chairmanship of GN Singh, secretary cum scientific director, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission. The members of the committee are two nominees from PCI; Dr GP Mohanta, professor, Department of Pharmacy, Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu; Manjiri S Gharat, vice president, Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA)-Community Pharmacy Division; Pradeep Mishra, professional secretary, SEARPharma Forum; Raj Vaidya, community pharmacist; JS Shinde, president, AIOCD; Suresh Gupta, general secretary, AIOCD; S Venkatapathi, treasurer, AIOCD; and Dr Adepu Ramesh, vice president, Indian Pharmaceutical Association. Chilkuri Paramathma, community pharmacist will be special invitee in the committee.

The current OTC drug market in India is likely to touch US46.6 billion by the end of 2016, mainly due to expansion of the drug market to remote corners. But the expanding market is a matter of concern due to ADRs, resulting from such prescriptions, as rural population often resort to self medication. In developed countries community pharmacists are playing a major role in ADR monitoring and reporting to pharmacovigilance centres. Because of increase in number ADR cases, it is felt that there is an urgent need to constitute a National Committee, to have an action plan, development & training module, to bridge the gap between ADR Monitoring Centres (AMCs) of PvPI and state pharmacy/nursing/medical council and state chemists associations, said GN Singh, DCGI.

Hailing the formation of the national advisory committee for engagement of community pharmacist in PvPI committee, AIOCD general secretary Suresh Gupta said, “As a trade body, it is our priority to ensure patients' access to safe medicine. We have appealed to DCGI GN Singh and the government of India to come out with the initiative. This is also a platform to assess the reality of pharmacist issue and this committee can play a vital role to resolve the issue as well as play a better role in ADR which is the prime object of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission.”

Raj Vaidya, a member of the committee said, “It is a welcome step. IPA has been pursuing IPC to include community pharmacists in PvPI. It's good government finally realised the need for it and took appropriate steps towards the direction. The committee will devise a plan to rope in pharmacists in ADRs reporting.”