The International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) South Asian Chapter was officially flagged off during the 20th ISoP Assembly held in Oman recently. The initiative will provide a great boost to PV and drug safety not only in India, but the four other South Asian countries namely Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan, which are part of this chapter, ISoP notified in a statement.
Speaking in this regard, Moin Don, Lead, South Asia Chapter, said, “As a Chapter Lead, I sincerely appeal to all to actively participate by getting involved in this Chapter activities and getting enrolled themselves at the earliest. We have a great vision in front of us and a clearly charted out road map to have a governance structure, a team of executives and working policies, which will ensure that we organise PV awareness/education programmes in collaboration with academia, industry, regulatory authorities and other important international stakeholders such as WHO, DIA, UMC, PVPI, etc.”
The statement further said, “In order to understand the roadmap, here are some indicators:
- Initiate, encourage and support the Pharmacovigilance education and research in all health profession courses
- Support the existing Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI)
- Establish or strengthen the Pharmacovigilance systems in South Asian countries
- Bringing together the Pharmacovigilance systems in South Asian countries to cooperate and collaborate in identifying the safety signals of medications, in particular, in these countries
- Improve the industry, academia and regulatory collaboration for monitoring the safety of medications and vaccines, in particular
- Percolate the activities of ISoP in South Asian countries by means of meetings, symposia, workshops, conferences and training programmes
- Publish the scientific papers and periodicals on important aspects of Pharmacovigilance activities in South Asian countries”
India, as one of the most desirable destination/hub for outsourced PV activities with more than 7000 PV professionals working as SMEs in PV domain, can take the lead role to be the torch-bearer and mentor to the other four countries in this chapter, Don added.