Keen on establishing its pan India presence, the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), which acts as the national coordinating centre (NCC) for the Pharmacovigilance Programmme of India (PvPI), is in the process of opening its extended arm across multiple cities in the country. For this purpose, IPC will be closely associating with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), to open its regional centres across CDSCO’s zonal and sub zonal offices.

In the first phase of this project, IPC has identified Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata as potential places to set up their regional centres. In fact, Dr G N Singh, drug controller general of India (DCGI), informed that IPC has already started the modalities of setting up its first extended leg in Mumbai at the CDSCO office, work on which is currently in progress. He said that if things go as planned, they hope to start the operations by the end of this year, after which they plan to set up its second office in Hyderabad followed by Chennai and Kolkata.

“This move is in line with our commitment to strengthen the standard setting body by further integrating with the PvPI programme to its core and support CDSCO for formulating safety related regulatory decisions for medicines more efficiently. This is also aimed at enhancing the monitoring and compliance of all the patient safety measures through PvPI. All steps are being taken to ensure that the PvPI programme gets maximum exposure and create overall impact in ensuring best healthcare practices within the country. Moreover, it will negate any duplication of work and enable us to have a coherent approach towards all drug safety issues in the country,” Dr Singh added.

In another strategic move to ensure maximum participation in the PvPI programme, IPC is planning to add another 50 adverse drug reaction (ADR) monitoring centres (AMC) to its current list of 150 monitoring centers, by the end of this year. In fact as part of its ADR expansion plan, IPC has already identified 30 ADR centres in different parts of the country.

Dr Singh added that IPC is working round the clock to identify and bring in as many AMCs under its ambit as possible with an aim to create awareness amongst healthcare professionals about the importance of ADR reporting in India and efficiently monitor benefit-risk profile of medicines to generate independent, evidence based recommendations on the safety of medicines.