who medicines strategy - libdoc.who.int - World Health Organization

COMPONENTS OF THE STRATEGY | 103Challenges remainingThe biggest challenge in adverse drug reactionmonitoring is under-reporting by healthprofessionals. There is an urgent need to raiseawareness among all interested parties of theimportance of monitoring medicines. Morecountries need to establish the process elementsof an Adverse Drug Reaction Centre (ADR)and consequent involvement in internationalmonitoring. The established ADR centres needto improve reporting, both qualitatively andquantitively. The scope of pharmacovigilancecontinues to broaden as the array of medicinalproducts grows. It includes the use of herbal andtraditional medicines, blood products, biologicals,and vaccines. A more recent and urgent challengehas arisen with the launch by WHO of the ‘3 by5’ initiative aimed at providing ARVs for 3 millionpeople by 2005. These new drugs are beingintroduced into populations where there is littleinfrastructure to monitor their use.Meeting the challenges 2004-2007Over the next four years WHO will:> promote pharmacovigilance through activitiesand Annual Meetings of the National Centresparticipating in the International DrugMonitoring Programme.> collaborate with existing pharmacovigilancecentres for capacity building in countriescurrently not included in the Programme.> maintain normative activities, including theannual meetings of the Advisory Committeeon the Safety of Medicinal Products and theproduction of guidelines in the Safety ofMedicines series. Forthcoming publicationsinclude: Pharmacovigilance and PublicHealth and the Safety Monitoring of Herbalmedicines.> increase efforts to provide training inpharmacovigilance.OUTCOME INDICATORS1999 2003 2007#REPORTING % TARGET#REPORTING % TARGETNo. of countries monitoring adverse drug reactions 56/191 29% 35% 72/192 38% 45%