Abstract

World Health Organization defines ''Pharmacovigilance'' as the science and activities related to the detection, assessment, understanding, and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problems. Pharmaco-vigilance programs can play an important role in early detection and prevention of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Pharmacovigilance is also defined as ‘the study of the safety of marketed drugs under the practical conditions of clinical usage in large communities’. It is better to extend safety monitoring and detect drug adverse events that have previously been unrecognized despite evaluation in clinical trials. Although these methods were developed for monitoring pharmaceutical medicines they are also used for additional evaluation of the safety of other medicinal products including herbals, blood products, vaccines and even medical devices