New Delhi: With changes in the way people take medicines, Union Health Minister J P Nadda Wednesday underlined the importance of pharmacovigilance, the monitoring of adverse effects of drugs in the country.


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He noted that India has made considerable progress in the field in the last five years.


"Considerable progress has been made by the India Pharmacovigilance Programme over the last few years, including setting up of pharmacovigilance system in tuberculosis and HIV-AIDS related public health programmes," he said after inaugrating the 38th annual meeting of National Pharmacovigilance Centres.


Launched in 2010, the pharmacovigilance programme has set up 179 centres across the county.


Adverse drug reactions are reported to Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, which works in collaboration with global Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring Centre, Sweden to contribute to the global Adverse Drug Reactions data base, Nadda said.


Health Secretary BP Sharma said the importance of Pharmacovigilance has increased as there have been changes in the ways people take medicines.


"People prescribe medicines from across the border through Internet and all kinds of medicines are coming for which we are not sure whether they are fully tested. They might be coming from places which may not be having a strong regulatory system. People are also taking self-medication, then there also counterfiet and substandard medication also. In such situation the need for a pharmacovigilance system is very important," Sharma said.


Organized by WHO, the aims of the meeting is to provide a platform to representatives of Pharmacovigilance Centers from around the world to meet and discuss on co-vigilance and drug safety issues.


At the conclusion of the meeting, the representatives will give recommendation to WHO on how to address the problems of co-vigilance and patient safety globally.