An Overview on the Third Annual Pharmacovigilance Forum

Pharmacovigilance is the fourth steps (the last phase) in clinical development of the drugs –after the drug is marketed. New prescription drugs are only marketed after carefully controlled clinical trials have shown them to be safe and effective. Farmacovigilance is the postmarketing surveillance and study of ADRs, with the ultimate goal of preventing or minimizing their occurrence. It is a continuous process that involve both health authorities and pharmaceutical industry. It is a necessary interface between therapeutics and clinical epidemiology. The costs (billions of dollars annually) includes collection, compilation, quality control, and analysis of the spontaneus reports. Although it is the ′′poor relative′′ of pharmacology and the ′′bogeyman′′ of the sellers of new drugs, pharmacovigilance is, neverthless, very important component for the rational use of drugs [1-3].