NAFDAC launches App for reporting Adverse Drug Reactions

National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Wednesday launched a Med Safety Mobile Application for reporting of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) to enhance the promotion and increase reporting of ADRs amongst healthcare professionals, healthcare providers and members of the public.

NAFDAC’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye at the virtual launch of Med Safety Mobile App stated that its focus is to ensure safety of medications used in healthcare delivery as the whole world battles with the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to her, the App would also be used in collaboration with other agencies to access the quality, safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines when it is available in the country.

Professor Adeyeye stated the App was been adopted because Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) and other drug-related problems in Nigeria is under-reported and far cry from the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation of 200 ADR reports per million of the population.

She said the App will directly reach out to over 10 million pharmacovigilance stakeholders through conventional and social media platforms, adding that it would ensure that its users seamlessly report incidences of ADRs from the comfort of their phones.

She said: “Reports can be created offline without internet connectivity and submitted once the connection is established. Since it is directly linked to WHO database platforms, a lot of man-hours are saved from manual input of the information on Individual Case Safety Reports (ICSRs) using the hard copy ADR forms.”

In order to effectively harness the benefits of the Med Safety App, she said NAFDAC would intensify efforts on sensitization campaigns for the general public, organize training for healthcare providers and health professionals and make provision of internet-enabled tablets for Zonal Pharmacovigilance Centres and selected health facilities in Nigeria.

She called on all healthcare providers and everyone in Nigeria to support NAFDAC to achieve the mandate of safeguarding the health of the nation.

“NAFDAC is very grateful to the WHO for supporting the procurement of the app; UMC for providing administration and technical support to NAFDAC and the Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency of The United Kingdom for their technical support and more especially for coordinating the Web Recognizing Adverse Drug Reactions (WEB-RADR) project which has led to the development of this novel app,” she said