Pharmacovigilance: An Overview of Drug Safety Monitoring (<i>Vinitha Babuselvan et al., </i><i>Pharmacovigilance: An Overview of Drug Safety Monitoring</i>)<b></b>

Pharmacovigilance and drug safety are both essential for protecting patient health and making sure that the advantages of prescription drugs exceed any possible drawbacks. Pharmacovigilance plays a crucial and necessary role in clinical research. The IPC-PvPI is officially recognized as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmacovigilance within Public Health Programmes and Regulatory Services. While this is a significant achievement, the PvPI still faces several challenges. These include monitoring generic drugs, biosimilars, and adverse drug reactions specific to certain diseases, such as those caused by antidiabetic, cardiovascular, and antipsychotic medications. Additionally, raising awareness about drug safety is a continuing and essential task. A drug safety issue is rarely considered fully resolved, and safety assessments remain throughout the entire lifecycle of a drug. When adverse events or harmful effects occur, particularly when they are not preceded by or followed by, it is important to report them, investigate them, and effectively convey their importance to the individuals involved in an evident and knowledgeable manner. Drug safety efforts involve thorough pre-market testing, ongoing monitoring after a drug is approved, preventing mistakes during prescription and administration, and making sure that high-quality medicines are available at healthcare facilities. Early detection and timely treatment of side effects and unusual reactions to medications are highly important. Pharmacovigilance programs collect data on both preventable and inevitable drug-related adverse effects through rigorous monitoring.