Many of the medicines consumed nowadays produce adverse side effects, and this is precisely the phenomenon under pharmacovigilance’s responsibility.
A new study by the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and Roche pharmaceutical concludes that there are major challenges in this area in Central America.
For example, of the 26 countries of Central America and the Caribbean only Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba and Costa Rica have legislation that regulates medicinal drugs and their effects.
The pharmacovigilance allows to know the performance of products once they are made available for the professionals to prescribe to the general population,”
said Dr. Victoria Hall, from the University of Costas Rica.
The lack of legislation in many countries, and its implementation and control in those that do have it, prevents ensuring that patients are safe when consuming drugs.
In addition, new challenges related to pharmacovigilance include the illegal sale of substandard drugs, the illegal sale of drugs and drugs of abuse through Internet, irrational drug use and overdose.
Current systems must evolve in order to adequately address this broad range”
, stated the research, conducted by Tatiana Calderón.
This is the first time the region has a document like this, which summarized the framework of legal action to monitor medications and their effects on patients in each country.
Historically, big changes in pharmacovigilance worldwide, have been based on unfortunate incidents for patients. We want to contribute to the health of the population and intervene early and proactively to reduce and prevent such incidents,”
said Daniel Álvarez, medical director of Roche Central America and the Caribbean.
The document, called “Basic elements of Pharmacovigilance”, was released on Wednesday and it’s available in all libraries in Costa Rica, as well as national hospitals and the Ministry of Health.