What Students Need To Know About The Need for Pharmacovigilance

The role of pharmacovigilance is to determine which adverse events cross the line of a drug’s efficacy. In other words, analysing which side effects are worth the risk to patients compared with how effective they are at treating a disease. For instance, chemotherapy is known to cause some very serious side effects but when faced with life-threatening cancer, these side effects are considered acceptable given the potential to cure a patient. However, if a drug used to cure a headache caused similar side effects, the risk to the patient would be considered too great and the benefit not substantial enough to justify the potential damage. Pharmacovigilance is arguably the most essential function within a life science company. To develop, manufacture and commercialise a drug a company must adhere to strict regulations. Many of these regulations will focus on the patient’s safety and the added benefit to the patient derived from the drug. Pharmacovigilance (also PV or PhV) covers all the activities focused o