Shabait.com: Pharmacovigilance Harmonization symposium concludes

Asmara, 17 April 2016- The Pharmacovigilance and Risk Management symposium that was held in Asmara Palace from 10 to 16 April 2016 under the theme “Developing Proactive Pharmacovigilance and Risk Management Strategies in East Africa” concluded adopting different recommendations.

After a heated discussion in the presence of the Minister of Health Ms. Amina Nur-Husein and the WHO country representative Dr. Josephine Namboze the symposium adopted different recommendations including that African countries should work together on pharmacovigilance in line with the African Medicine Regulatory Harmonization (AMRH) program’s vision of an African regional integration in drug regulation.

Country ownership of all activities in PV is crucially important and should be respected and countries should seek to work closely with designated institutions including the regional centers of regulatory excellence as well as existing continental institutions such as WHO and other relevant institutions.

As PV priorities are patient focused should not be constrained by financial and technical constraints and African countries should strive to develop organizational capacity in order to achieve the stated goals and vision with regards pharmacovigilance.

Amidst the symposium a half day discussion was conducted with regards “Way forward for accelerating pharmacovigilance Harmonization in East and Horn of Africa: Challenges and Opportunities”.

Professionals from the Sudan, Kenya, Burundi, South Sudan, Cape-Verde, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria, Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Thailand, Sweden, the US and Switzerland attended the one week Pharmacovigilance and Risk Management advance course.

The advanced course was organized in partnership with the Ministry of Health and WHO and had created a forum for internationally renowned and qualified persons, researchers, practitioners and educators to share experiences and discuss on the recent innovations, trends, opportunities as well as practical challenges encountered.