What is the role of pharmacovigilance?
Pharmacovigilance (PV) plays an essential role in the healthcare system by assessing and monitoring drug interactions amongst and their effects. Pharmacovigilance guidelines need to be strong to maximize benefits and minimize risks by continuous monitoring of drug effects. So assessment needs to be done during the pre clinical, clinical and the marketing phase as during each stage we will be ascertain side effects and adverse drug reactions .therefore its essential a good network among pharmacovigilance bodies as well as hospitals, health centers and academic institutions, health professionals and media exists.
Scope of Pharmacovigilance
The drug development industry is always busy developing new medicines for common as well as rare diseases. Pharmacovigilance or drug safety surveillance is thus a vital component of the process to develop safe and efficacious drugs. Unfortunately as the pandemic caused by COVID-19 is fast spreading, it seems to make the general public aware of the importance of the pharmaceutical industry which is fighting tooth and nail to develop a vaccine against this menace. Researchers are working round the clock to develop a cure against COVID-19 and at each stage Pharmacovigilance experts are monitoring the safety and efficacy of the new vaccines before their time comes to be marketed and even post marketing the pharmacovigilance experts will need to be on their toes to assess and record any untoward adverse events as once in the market the number of individual receiving this drug is going to be multifold to the original sample during the clinical trial period. Medicine and pharmaceutical industry will always play a vital role in development of new drugs and therapies for improving and saving the lives of individuals which is the primary goal of any life science. We are researching new things to make life better, safer and to increase the life span.
Job Responsibilities
Pharmacovigilance professionals need to identify, monitor and evaluate events related to drugs as well as review, assess and prepare reports and other documents associated with pharmaceutical products thereby improving the safety of medicines in the market.
Primarily Pharmacovigilance professionals begin their career as drug safety associate or pharmacovigilance officer. This primarily involves recording and reporting patient reported side effects of drugs into a database which is further evaluated by risk management teams. The career can digress into two paths from here one which follows the successive levels of senior drug safety officer, manager and director, or the more technical route, which includes signal detection, risk management and epidemiological roles. Signal detection required more knowledge and technical training to identify pathways in data to uncover the underlying reason for patient side effects. The next step of career path moves you to risk management roles where they identify and evaluate the health risks of pharmaceutical drugs.
Course offered to accelerate your career
James Lind Institute provides various intensive courses to develop candidates who are expert at monitoring drug risk and thereby ensuring the well being of consumers. The courses deal with basic principles of pharmacovigilance to pharmacovigilance in clinical research, setting up a pharmacovigilance centre in industry, management of pharmacovigilance data, quality assurance risk management and assessment. Thus it encompasses all factors of pharmacovigilance with the primary intention of honing individuals who are experts at assessing the adverse events of the drugs thus making drug safety their priority.