The Odisha government has asked the union health ministry to increase the funding for pharmacovigilance activities in the state.

The state government's demand to this effect was conveyed to Dr A K Panda, joint secretary, ministry of health and family welfare and Dr GN Singh, drug controller general of India (DCGI) and secretary-cum-scientific director, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC), who were in Odisha recently on a two-day visit to the state to have a first-hand information about the adverse drug reaction (ADR) monitoring centres in the state.

At the meeting, organised on December 26, 2013 under the chairmanship of Dr Panda, and Dr GN Singh, members of the ADR monitoring centres in the state pressed upon the need to increase the funds to strengthen the ADR monitoring activities in the state.

During the meeting, Dr Singh highlighted to the state government on the steps taken by the IPC for collection of ADRs and requested the state authorities to issue letters to the medical colleges and other peripheral health institutions for active participation in pharmacovigilance programme of India.

During the two days visit to Odisha, both Dr Panda and Dr Singh visited SCB Medical College (SCBMC), Cuttack which is one of  the ADR monitoring centres and interacted with the clinicians of various departments.

Dr Panda requested all the faculty of the medical college to cooperate with the ADR monitoring centres and also insisted the details were to be recorded on a time bound basis.

On the occasion, Dr Singh spoke about the necessity of ADR monitoring for implementation of regulatory decisions in ensuring drug safety in Indian patients.