The
Union government is yet to provide the funding, staff and infrastructure
to commission the 18 Centres for Pharmacovigilance at government
medical college hospitals in Karnataka.
Pharmacovigilance
prevents adverse drug reactions. The Centres will monitor and evaluate
the information from hospitals on Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) besides
identifying information on drug hazards to ensure the safety of
patients.
In
early 2010, following the need to open up pharmacovigilance across the
country, the erstwhile Drugs Control General of India (DCGI) Dr Surinder
Singh was working to approve the Centre for Pharmacovigilance at
government hospitals attached to the medical colleges.
This
led the Karnataka health and family welfare department to identify 16
locations which covers 12 government medical colleges hospitals and six
government independent hospitals to establish the Centre for
Pharmacovigilance. The state had also sent a letter of intent to these
institutions.
The 12
colleges from the 10 districts are Bangalore Medical College and
Research Institute, Government Dental College and Hospital, Bangalore,
Mysore Medical College and Research Institute (MMC&RI), Bellary
Medical College now renamed as Vijayanagara Institute of Medical
Sciences, Government Dental College and Research Institute, Bellary,
Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, Karnataka Institute of Medical
Sciences, Hubli which is attached to the Kempegowda Institute of
Medical Sciences, Belgaum Institute of Medical Sciences (BIMS), Shimoga
Institute of Medical Sciences(SIMS), Bidar Institute of Medical
Sciences(BRIMS), Raichur Institute of Medical Sciences(RIMS), Hassan
Institute of Medical Sciences (HIMS). The four hospitals are Jayadeva
Institute of Cardiology, Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, Kidwai
Memorial Institute of Oncology, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest
Diseases and SDS Sanatorium, Karnataka Institute of Diabetology,
Karnataka Institute of Nephrology.
In fact
in 2004, the Director General Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare received grant from the World Bank to start a
National Pharmacovigilance Programme for which Central Drugs Standard
Control Organization (CDSCO) was the coordinator. Under the programme,
21 pharmacovigilance centres were opened with two zonal centres While
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi covered North and
East, the KEM Hospital at Mumbai monitored southern and western regions
in the country. There were five regional pharmacovigilance centres at
Kolkata, Pondicherry (JIPMER), Nagpur and Mumbai with two centres. There
were several periphery centres including Bangalore at the Victoria
Hospital, Goa, and Mysore within JSS College of Pharmacy.
There
are already a couple of similar centres run by pharmacy colleges in
Karnataka which include the Drug Information Centre at Victoria Hospital
supported by the Al Ameen College of Pharmacy.
“Since
pharmacovigilance is now viewed as a critical component in patient care,
we had proposed to the DCGI on the need to set-up centres across
healthcare providers in the state,” stated Dr BR Jagashetty, Karnataka
drugs controller.
With
India now recognized as a hub for human drug studies, an efficient
pharmacovigilance programme is a must as stringent safety pharmacology
studies also help to prevent fatality and serious injuries of
volunteers and patients who are part of the clinical trials, he added.
Source: PB
