By Belize Live News Staff: That question sits behind a two day workshop held in Belize City this month.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness, working with the Pan American Health Organization, brought together an unusually wide group at the Grand Resort Hotel. Government drug inspectors. Hospital pharmacists. Private pharmacists. Importers and wholesalers. Academics. And patient representatives.
The subject was post market surveillance, meaning what happens to a medicine after it is approved and reaches the shelf.
Clinical trials catch a lot. They do not catch everything. Real world use across thousands of people surfaces side effects, quality failures and counterfeit products that testing never found.
Sessions covered adverse drug reaction reporting, adverse events after immunization, and how to identify substandard and falsified medical products. Participants also worked through the VigiFlow and VigiMobile systems and the national reporting pathways.
“This workshop is an important step in a longer effort to strengthen regulatory capacity, improve patient safety, and ensure that all people in Belize can have confidence in the medicines and health technologies they receive,” said Dr. Karen Lewis-Bell of PAHO.
Have you ever reported a bad reaction to a medication?
