Apollo Hospitals today said it has set up an adverse drug reaction reporting center at its facility here under the National Pharmacovigilance programme. "It (the centre) is the first of the corporate entities to join 12 centres of pharmacovigilance programme," Chairman Task force for Research Apollo Hospitals Educational and Research Foundation Ranjit Roy Chaudhury said on the sidelines of pharmacovigilance-global perspective meet. Pharmacovigilance program of India was launched in July 2010 for detection,assessment,understanding and prevention of adverse effects,particularly long-term and short-term side effects of medicines,as new drugs find their way to the country. Under the programme,40 such centres including other corporate hospitals and medical institutions,are planned to be established by 2011. The program is meant to monitor medicines as used in everyday practice and to identify previously unrecognised adverse effects or changes in the patterns of their adverse effects. Further,the program intends to assess the risks and benefits of medicines in order to determine what action,if any,is necessary to improve their safe use.
