To nurture qualified pharmacovigilance personnel for effective pharmacovigilance (PV), the National Coordination Center (NCC) of Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) under the Union health ministry will conclude its flagship programme called as "Skill Development Programme on Basics and Regulatory Aspects of Pharmacovigilance" in the second week of October, 2017 which started from January 2017 onwards at Ghaziabad.

It has till date trained 300 healthcare professionals including doctors and pharmacists to acquire requisite skills for furthering the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) in the country.

“IPC is going to start another set of skill development programme from next year onwards to produce PV professionals and help healthcare professionals to acquire requisite skills for furthering the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India,” said Dr V Kalaiselvan, Principal Scientific Officer, IPC.

This programme is a part of the skill development programme in the country under the government’s ambitious Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana to produce and nurture qualified pharmacovigilance personnel for effective pharmacovigilance (PV).

This is also aimed at enhancing career prospects and employment opportunities in PV in government and private sector, career opportunities in regulatory systems/Contract Research Organizations (CROs) and public health programmes, acquiring basic knowledge in PV and abilities to deliver good PV practices on par with international requirements.

PV is a science that relates to detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse affects or any other drug related problem. To track adverse drug reactions in Indian population, Union health ministry launched PvPI which has outreach all over the country but only a small portion of healthcare professionals have formal training in PV.

Following recent amendments to Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, 1945 and order from the Union health ministry to all states and Union territories, the avenues in PV has widened and has become a priority area.

“The professionals who have been trained on pharmacovigilance (PV) currently working in various healthcare institutions across the country have been motivated to take the onus of disseminating the knowledge and practices of PV for effective adverse drug reaction (ADR) monitoring,” according to a senior health ministry official.  

This programme will also initiate the process of creating a registry of skills, enable and mobilize a large number of healthcare professionals to acquire requisite skills for not only employment but also capacity building and strengthening of Qualified Persons for Pharmacovigilance (QPPv) as per the requirement of the Schedule Y of Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

Aimed at imparting hands-on training to the young healthcare professionals in the field of PV, the programme was aimed to enhance the knowledge and skill of qualified pharmacovigilance professionals to ensure patient safety.