Confab on Pharmacovigilance underway in Accra

Dr Victor Bampoe, Deputy Minister of Health on Thursday opened the 2nd African Society of Pharmacovigilance (ASoP) Conference in Accra, by hailing the nation for establishing the first Pharmacovigilance (PV) centre in the West African Sub-region.

He said the move by Ghana in 2001 has led to a number of countries in the sub-region establishing PV centres.

The two-day conference in Accra is being organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Advocacy and Training in Pharmacovigilance (WHO-CC), University of Ghana, in conjunction with the Food and Drugs Authority of Ghana (FDA).

Ghana was selected to host the prestigious event in view of the country’s remarkable leadership in the safety of medicines and vaccines.

Dubbed: “ASoP-2015,” the conference is on the theme: "Pharmacovigilance in Africa: New Methods, New Opportunities, New Challenges.”

More than 500 participants from Africa and beyond are taking part in the conference.

Dr Bampoe suggested the need for Africa to develop robust systems to ensure the safety of drugs since the ability to carry out PV activities is negligible.

He said the reliance of Africa on the safety data of drugs of the advanced countries is no longer feasible since the records would not be available on diseases portfolios such as Ebola, hence the need for the continent to take the lead to make the information available especially on new vaccines.

Professor Alex Dodoo, Director of WHO-CC, Accra called for innovative means to facilitate efforts towards quality monitoring and regulations of drugs.

He said the systems to ensure drug safety in Africa are not fully functional, hence the under-reporting of adverse effects of medicines.

Prof Dodoo said 35 countries in Africa have joined the WHO efforts towards PV by establishing national centres to facilitate the process.

He said these efforts were borne out of the strong African support and leadership culminating in the opening of the two WHO-CC's, in Ghana and Morocco.

Prof Dodoo said the African Union (AU) / New Partnership for Africa’s Development created the Regional Centres of Regulatory Excellence and planning to establish an institute on regulatory science

He said the continent has developed and tested vaccines on the Ebola Viral Disease, newer vaccines against malaria and against the influenza pandemic.

Prof Dodoo said professionals in PV are doing sacrificial work since they not funded for the job and called for collaboration with stakeholders like industry and academia, whilst the donor community should provide massive support towards their efforts.

He lauded the efforts of University of Nairobi, Kenya for introducing MSc in PV and expressed the need for Ghana to emulate the example.

Prof Rachida Soulaymani- Bencheik, President of ASoP said the body was created in Rabat, Morocco to facilitate discourse, networking and sharing of research findings in PV.

Mr Kofi Aboakye Nyame, Programme Director of Systems of Improved Access to Pharmaceutical Services/USAID expressed the need for more efforts to ensure the quality and safety of drugs, adding that for the past 15 years USAID had worked to strengthen PV.

Development partners including the WHO, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, the Uppsala Monitoring Centre, ECOWAS, the West African Health Organisation and the East African Community are taking part in the conference.

Ms Haggar Hilda Ampadu, Deputy-Director of the WHO-CC, is the Chairperson of the Organising Committee for ASoP.

The WHO- CC is an AU/NEPAD Regional Centre of Regulatory Excellence in Pharmacovigilance. It was designated a WHO Collaborating Centre in 2009 to give leadership and technical support to African countries and has been responsible for the setting up of safety monitoring systems in more than 30 African countries.

The FDA is the National Drug Regulatory Agency for Ghana. Established in 1992, the FDA is responsible for ensuring public health and safety by regulating all foods, medicines, vaccines and household chemicals.

ASoP is a professional society that brings together stakeholders in Pharmacovigilance in Africa. It is the African Chapter of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance and has the aim of improving the art and science of pharmacovigilance through research, meetings, collaborations, education and information sharing.