In yet another strategic move to strengthen the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI), the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) recently launched revolutionary mobile application for adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting. The mobile application for ADR reporting was specifically designed to facilitate the needs of the IPC, to ensure hassle free ADR reporting for the stakeholders.

It was developed as part of a joint venture between the IPC, which acts as the national coordination centre (NCC) for PvPI, and NSCB Medical College, Jabalpur. The mobile application is expected to provide a platform for the private healthcare professionals to report ADRs to safeguard and enhance public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy and quality of drugs. The application has in-built facilities and features for reporting of adverse drug reactions such as customisation of reporter details, auto entry in drug details, WHO algorithm based causality assessment, etc.

This application was launched at IPC Ghaziabad recently, by B P Sharma, secretary, health and chairman of IPC. Sharma said that this unique service will play a very important role in getting more accurate and timely report of the ADRs, enabling IPC to build strong network among healthcare providers. This he stressed will not only help in effective promotion of patients safety initiatives in the country, but will also ensure a strong healthcare system.

While appreciating the hard work and commitment shown by the PvPI team at IPC and the NSCB Medical College, Jabalpur in developing this application, he stressed that more initiatives in this line which promotes public-private partnership (PPP) between the government and educational institute is required to broaden and cement the PvPI further.

Dr G N Singh, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) who was also present during this lunch applauded the move and stressed that it will go a long way in helping and effectively ensuring strong ADRs from the stakeholders. In a similar move aimed at further reinforcing the importance of ADRs, effective from June 1st, 2015 Dr Singh has directed all the pharma companies to submit their ADRs, of their respective pharma product to NCC under the PvPI in xml-E2B format.

This he stressed is essential to hasten the process of uploading Individual Case Safety Reports (ICSRs) in VigiFlow, a WHO-UMC, web database. He further added that this would also enhance the process of assessment and signal detection.