Patient safety, a pharmaceutical industry commitment throughout the life of a medicine
From R&D to pharmacovigilance to production and incremental innovation, the industry is constantly seeking to maximise risk reduction in medicines.
On World Patient Safety Day, WHO recalls the importance of safe diagnosis.
Farmaindustria.es
It is through diagnosis that it is possible to know what is wrong with a patient. To achieve this, patients, healthcare professionals and the system must work together to navigate the complex and sometimes lengthy diagnostic process.
This year’s World Patient Safety Day on 17 September focuses on this issue. The diagnostic process includes discussion with the patient, physical examination, testing and review of the results before reaching a definitive conclusion and determining treatment. An accurate diagnosis allows the most appropriate treatment to be selected for a given patient, maximising its benefits and/or minimising its risks.
Safety is a key factor in enabling patients to benefit from the value offered by medicines that can alleviate their symptoms, improve their quality of life, control their disease or even cure it. In this regard, the pharmaceutical industry has been committed to patient safety for years in all areas related to the research, development, manufacture, marketing and proper use of medicines.
This commitment translates into measures ranging from patient involvement throughout the R&D process and incremental innovation of medicines to pharmacovigilance and the implementation of the Spanish Medicines Verification System (SEVeM) against counterfeiting.
It is part of a more than integrated dynamic in this industry, which, for example, works with one of the highest quality standards in manufacturing and production of all industrial sectors, being able to detect in a short space of time any possible error or contamination in batches and withdrawing the product before it reaches the market on many occasions.
Pharmacovigilance, i.e. the exhaustive monitoring of possible adverse drug reactions, the periodic review of scientific evidence or the immediate communication to the health authorities of any change in the benefit-risk balance of the drug, is another area in which pharmaceutical companies work towards patient safety. In recent years, the pharmaceutical industry has also promoted the Code of Conduct regulating the processing of personal data in clinical trials and other clinical research and pharmacovigilance, the first of its kind in Europe.
‘The constant search for solutions to provide patients with guarantees of safety and efficacy is a principle that the pharmaceutical industry works for on a daily basis,’ says Arantxa Sancho, director of Farmaindustria’s Medical-Scientific Affairs Department.
‘Its proper use is critical so that the safety and well-being of patients are not compromised. And this task involves all of us: the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare professionals, public administrations and patients,’ adds Sancho.
