Wednesday, October 23, 2019

The Benefits of Pursuing Pharmacovigilance Course



India’s pharmaceutical business is growing rate of 12–14% per annum. It is emerging as a major hub and pharmacovigilance is in the spotlight for healthcare industry. Pharmacovigilance (PV) plays an important role by monitoring the adverse effects of medical drugs throughout the drug development process, clinical trial and even when the drug is marketed. Pharmacovigilance is also abridged as PhV and in layman’s terms, it is drug safety. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines “PV as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problem”. PV involves rigorous monitoring and that might lead to withdrawal of many drugs from market or may prevent their commercialization in market at times.
PV course promotes clinical training and understanding of the risks and benefits of medicines, adverse events reporting, consumers and regulators on use of drugs. It also involves proactive reporting on the quality, safety and efficacy of medicines. The course covers key aspects of career which includes adverse event reporting, report writing, early signal detection, narrative writing, seriousness criteria assessment, risk-benefit management, information on regulatory bodies involved country wise. 

Benefit of Opting Pharmacovigilance as a Career Option:

PV is a well-defined employment option for medical, life science and pharmacy graduates with numerous opportunities. It is due to the pharmacovigilance professionals’, that drugs in the market are safe for consumption and harmful drugs are often withdrawn from the market. Globally, many pharmacovigilance centers are working towards drug safety and are maintaining large databases. which pushes the pharmaceutical companies to outsource their work to countries like China, India etc. for cost effectiveness. This provides an opportunity to get jobs in various pharmaceutical companies and earn attractive package.

Responsibilities of Pharmacovigilance Professionals:

  • Serves as the main link between pharmaceutical company and healthcare experts to provide valid information on drug safety
  • Ensures that drugs are safe for patients and identifies any new safety information (signal)
  • Handles adverse event in safety database
  • Flags up early warning signs of adverse effects of drugs
Firms that appoint Pharmacovigilance Professionals:

Pharmacovigilance students can find enormous employment options in the following organizations:

  • Contract research organization (CROs)
  • Pharmaceutical companies
  • Biotechnology firms
  • Regulatory authorities and drug safety consultancies
  • Regional pharmacovigilance centers and hospitals
  • Knowledge process outsourcing (KPOs)
Average Pay-scale in PV:

  • Fresher: Rs. 20k-45k
  • After 5 years: Rs. 80k-1 lakh
  • After 10 years: earn up to Rs. 3 Lakh
Opportunities in Pharmacovigilance
Figure 1: Career Ladder in Pharmacovigilance

PV offers jobs in report processing, in literature search and medical review, aggregate report preparation, screening and reporting, pharmaco-epidemiology, and risk management, labelling etc. 

Courses Offered:

The government is also supporting and emphasizing institutes to train students on PV as they can understand adverse effects of pharmaceuticals and work for human wellbeing. There is huge need for well qualified and trained people who could take PV jobs in drug companies. If a student or professional needs to strengthen his/her resume, there are specialized certificate and diploma courses to grab better opportunities.
Turacoz Skill Development provides up-to-date training to professionals and students who would like to opt for various opportunities in PV. The courses provided by Turacoz are:
Professional diploma in pharmacovigilance
Post graduate diploma in pharmacovigilance & medical writing
Post graduate diploma in scientific writing & clinical research

These courses have been planned by pharma experts from the industry themselves and thus it covers whole pharmacovigilance theoretical and practical knowledge for industry. The primary aim of the Post Graduate Diploma Program in pharmacovigilance is to familiarize the student with the updated theoretical and practical aspects in Pharmacovigilance. Students enrolled in online and offline certificate courses will be given exposure to practical exercises, training in detection of signal, data entry in database. Thus, in these courses students and professional will get maximum exposure to practical skills required in PV planning and execution.

Conclusions: 

PV is a great employment option for pharmacy, medical and life science graduates. A career in PV requires suitable qualification and proper training for processing and analyzing data. The PV course provides adequate knowledge and up-to-date training to students who would like to opt for various career opportunities in PV. The skill development program and training in PV is important and are provided by various institutes in India. The course module covers basic principles of pharmacovigilance, regulatory compliance, quality assurance, safety monitoring and all the key aspects in PV. These courses are designed for the aspiring students to make their career in PV as they get maximum theoretical and practical exposure via course.


Author: 
Aayushi Ambastha






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