Pharmacovigilance in Nepal

Pharmacovigilance has been defined by the WHO (2002) as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, unders tanding and prevention of adverse effect or any other drug related problems. The information generated by pharmacovigilance is useful in educating doctors about A DRs and in the official regulation of drug use. Its main purpose is to reduce the risk of drug related harm to the patient. It has an important role in the rational use of medicines, as it provides the basis for assessing safety or medicines.

Government of Nepal nominated Department of Drug Administration (DDA) in October 2004 as the focal point (National Pharmacovigilance centre) to liaison with WHO collaborating centre for International Drug Monitoring, Sweden and started collecting adverse drug reactions. Nepal became a WHO programme member in July 2006.

At present, there are 15 regional pharmacovigilance centers in Nepal

1. Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj

2. Civil Service Hospital, Minbhawan

3. Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara

4. KIST Medical College, Imadol

5. Nepal Medical College Teaching Hospital, Jorpati

6. Patan Hospital, Lalitpur

7. B.P Koirala Institute of Health Science (BPKIHS), Dharan

8. Dhulikhel Hospital, Banepa

9. Shree Birendra Hospital, Chhauni

10. Norvic International Hospital, Thapathali

11. Nepal Cancer Hospital and Research Center, Harisiddhi

12. College of Medical Sciences – Teaching Hospital

13. Chitwan medical college

14. Nepal Medicity Hospital

15. Nepal Tuberculosis centre

These regional pharmacovigilance centers operate under DDA (DDA being the National centre for ADR monitoring). The regional centers reports ADRs to the National center (DDA) via ‘Vigiflow’ (an online program) which are then forwarded to the Uppsala Monitoring Center (UMC) by the National Centre.

The National database contains about 967 ADR reports. 43 ADR reports have been sent to Uppsala by DDA in 2020.