A new vigilant body was set up by the Zambia Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority (PRA).
A new vigilant body was set up by the Zambia Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority (PRA). The main purpose of this body is to monitor the safety of medicines during the post marketing surveillance process. Pharmaco, as the monitoring body is named would supervise all adverse reactions due to a particular drug. This is to inculcate in people the rational use of medicines. The acting Health Minister Ronnie Shikapwasha launched the body on the 16th of June said that this unit would efficiently perform the job allotted to it. He also said that this was launched as adverse effects of all drugs that hit the market are not known before the medicine is marketed.
Hence this body would create awareness among he public. He said that in the recent years there was an increase in the use of medicine for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and hence there was a need for the monitoring unit. These drugs were new to the market and sufficient safety data was not available. This led to the development of a monitoring system which would study the effects of the drugs, documenting drug resistance patterns and treatment failures of both conventional and new medicines. In conclusion this would always keep the public as well as the medical community posted about the medicines in the market.
