Pharmacovigilance Awareness and Interpretation towards Patient Safety by Community Pharmacists: A Review across various Geographies

Abstract

The pharmacist’s contribution will remain an important element in effective healthcare system. Pharmacists have a critical role in patient drug safety by contributing to the identification, documentation and reporting of adverse drug reactions. Pharmacists have key roles to play in establishing benefits and risks profile of a marketed medicine. Country level drug ADR monitoring and programs throughout the world differ in their way of collecting ICSR reports by healthcare professionals specially pharmacist. In contrast to North American continent countries like Canada or the US, where the majority of the reports come from licensed pharmacists, some European and Asian countries, such as UK, France, Ireland, Malaysia have the maximum contribution of ADR reports coming from practicing physicians.