In United Kingdom, there are certain drugs in which although they were granted marketing approval by the Medicines and healthcare product regulatory agency (MHRA), they need to be closely monitored, since limited information were available about these drugs.  One of the key reasons attributed to this may be, less subjects being enrolled in the clinical trials, short therapy duration etc.…thus, in order to identify rare adverse reactions, effect of the drug in different populations or effect of the drug under different co-morbidities, such drugs are tagged with an inverted black triangle ( ▼ ) on their package insert, to ensure that these drugs are intensively monitored. The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) and MHRA encourages expedited reporting within 15 calendar days of all such drugs with an inverted black triangle symbol if, found to have caused serious or non-serious adverse drug reaction. You may find the black triangle drugs at the Electronic

The Ghana FDA department dispatched a Pharmacovigilance team to investigate the death of 3 patients caused due to contaminated Benzathine Penicillin injection. The preliminary investigations revealed that due to contaminated 0.9 normal saline solution which was used in reconstituting Penicillin powder for injection had led to fatality of the patients. The primary cause of death was determined to be injection site abscess, other serious adverse drug reaction included were skin necrosis and ulcers. The reason for contamination was stated as the re use of normal saline solution for several days at the Health Centre in the Asuogyaman District. In the statement regarding Benzathine Penicillin, it has been clearly indicated that sterile water should be used for reconstitution. The healthcare professionals have been asked to be more vigilant and report any untoward medical occurrence through submitting adverse event forms to the FDA or even by direct contact through the availabl

There would be an increase in fees upto 1.7 % from April 1 st 2018 as mentioned in the notification of Commission Regulation (EU) No 2018/471 (amending Council Regulation (EC) No 297/95), the fees however would be implemented for all activities carried out by the agency except pharmacovigilance . Apart from Pharmacovigilance the agency has also exempted fees of Micro Small or Medium Sized Enterprise, Orphan Medicinal Products, Medicinal Products for Paediatric Use, Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products etc… Detailed information on has been provided on an explanatory note. The agency every year revises its fees as per the statistical data from EUROSTAT ( European Union’s statistical office ), the current revision is made in accordance with the inflation rate for 2017. Reference: 1.        Explanatory note on general fees payable to the European Medicines Agency http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Other/2018/03/WC500246428.pdf 2.        COMMISSION REGUL

Eritrea an African country located in the north east region on the red coast sea bordering Ethiopia and Sudan, has been reported as the top country in reporting adverse drug reaction through safety reports submitted to global database by the Uppsala Monitoring Centre (Sweden), the collaborating centre for WHO as part of their international drug monitoring programme. The Pharmacovigilance programme of Eritrea was carried out at maturity LEVEL THREE as per UMC with the assistance of local strength engaged in providing harmonization. Eritrea has identified 11 safety concerns on their medicinal products, which were also published in international peer reviewed journals. The Eritrean work on Pharmacovigilance has been globally acknowledged with insights on revising the policy of Eritrean Healthcare system. Recognizing the significant contribution made in pharmacovigilance,Eritrea along with Netherlands and Peru has been invited for the upcoming 40 th Anniversary of UMC o