Regional Pharmacovigilance Centres

REGIONAL PHARMACOVIGILANCE CENTRES

The 31 Regional Pharmacovigilance Centres form a network covering the whole country, thereby representing a large monitoring area. These decentralised structures for collecting ADRs encourage exchange of information with healthcare professionals and consti-tute a particularity of the French system. Regional Pharmacovigilance Centres are located in departments of clinical pharmacology or clinical toxicology in the University Hospitals. They each have a defined geographical area of intervention which is included along with their address and phone numbers in the Vidal Drug Dictionary.

They have several missions (Moore et al., 1985):

·    Providing information on ADRs to healthcare professionals, but also to the local hospital direc-tor(s) (e.g. in formulary boards), and to the Agency, as required,

·    Conducting pharmacovigilance investigations at the AFSSAPS’ request.

·    Contributing to scientific progress by conducting research on drug-related risks.

Regional Pharmacovigilance Centres are estab-lished through a convention between the AFSSAPS and the University Hospital. They are financed by the Agency on the basis of performance, which includes not only the number of reports received and questions answered, but also collective activities and scientific publications.

The University Hospitals also contribute to their financing by seconding personnel and by providing material support, the latter varying according to the Hospital. Personnel in the Centres can be financed through the university and hospital (professors, practi-tioners, assistants, and medical or pharmacy students), and through the Agency grants.

Regional Centres have a scientific association, included within the French Pharmacological Society, which organises yearly scientific meetings in the Spring, and other work-shops or thematic meet-ings in the Fall, and co-sponsors with the Agency and the French Pharmaceutical companies yearly methodology workshops.