ADR Reporting – Awareness and Preparedness Among Pharmacy Students

From our recent study on the knowledge and awareness on pharmacovigilance among pharmacy students of an Indian pharmacy college, we found that about 63.3% of the students are not aware of the procedure to report an adverse drug reaction (ADR). Most shockingly, about 67.8% of the students do not where the nearest peripheral pharmacovigilance centre is located. Many literatures suggest that even the health professionals lack knowledge on the key components of pharmacovigilance. The pharmacy students are reported to have played the key role in reporting ADRs in many settings. The product oriented pharmacy course should be more focused on patient-centric aspects. Necessary steps need to be taken to make the students aware of the importance of pharmacovigilance and drug safety. We suggest that ADR should be trained as an internship component in the pharmacy curriculum.