BMJ 1994;309:194 (16 July)

Letters

Postmarketing surveillance

EDITOR, - The need to monitor the safety of medicines as they are used in clinical practice is well recognised and based on the Committee on the Safety of Medicines' yellow card system. Further evidence of drug safety is provided by the Drug Safety Research Unit's prescription event monitoring system1 and postmarketing surveillance performed by pharmaceutical companies or by independent research companies employed by them.

Although most postmarketing surveillance studies are conducted within the framework of guidelines produced by the BMA, the Committee on the Safety of Medicines, and the Royal College of General Practitioners, the link between pharmaceutical companies and the so called independent research companies is not always made clear, leading doctors to believe that these research companies are carrying out independent research. We share the concerns of medical and pharmaceutical advisers in this region that some companies are using this route not to assess safety but as . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Postmarketing surveillance Is not used to promote products
M Vandenburg and W H Inman
BMJ 1994 309: 608. [Extract] [Full Text]

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