A week filled with engaging discussions on “Building ADR Reporting Culture For Patient Safety”

The School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (SPS) at Apeejay Stya University (ASU), Gurugram is celebrating the 4th National Pharmacovigilance Week. The theme for this year is “Building ADR Reporting Culture For Patient Safety”.

The inaugural event commenced with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp followed by the welcoming of the guest speakers with plant saplings, followed by presentations cum interaction session by an industry expert Mr Maulik Chokshi, Deputy Country Director. He actively interacted with the students and addressed various topics related to public health and the healthcare system of India. He further illustrated GMP, schedule M, ABC drug model, pharmacy economics and policies. He emphasised, “There is a need to build an Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) reporting culture,” by also highlighting its importance and how it will be helpful for patient safety. During this session, the audience gained valuable insights about the regulatory agencies and pricing policies of pharmaceutical products in India.

The next session was delivered by Dr. Anupama Diwan, Dean at SPS, who threw light on pharmaco-vigilance (PV) and its essentiality for drug safety and monitoring. She emphasised the need to celebrate PV week and made students aware of the role of pharmacists in creating consciousness about PV. She also motivated the students about their role as an ideal pharmacist in the health care system and public health. She further urged budding pharmacists to be proactively involved in reporting ADR and contribute to spreading awareness among the general public.

The session was then followed by another energetic session with Mrs Pooja Kumar, registered Patent Agent, StartupFacilitator, Mentor, Women Entrepreneur, Founder director, Innove Intellects LLP. She addressed the audience about patents, copyrights, and trade secrets along with their importance in pharmaceutical sciences. She explained to the audience about the need for patent filing and the related procedures. She illustrated the non-disclosure agreements and their importance. During the session, Dr Pooja cited several real-world examples for patent and geographical indications which are very captivating. The speaker further highlighted to the audience how IP assets give profit during hard times and ended the session with a career perspective for students in the Intellectual Property Rights field.

Finally, the session was concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr Diwan. She ended the session by thanking all the speakers, students and faculties with a good motivational story. All the presentations were well-received by the audience and further emphasised the relevance and applicability of pharmacovigilance practices.