Kathmandu, May 5:

The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has sent preliminary data on adverse-effect drugs to the Sweden-based Uppasala Monitoring Centre, a drug monitoring body of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring (ADRM) unit, formed a year ago by the Ministry of Health and Population, had collected data based on complaints lodged by patients at Manipal College of Medical Science, Pokhara.

Nepal is also a member of Pharmacovigilence, Sweden.

Due to the lack of an Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) monitoring body, many banned in other countries are still in use here.

“Though all drugs have certain side effects, they might not be noticeable at the initial stage. Besides, different individuals may react differently to the same. ADRM will collect patients’ complaints about such drugs and send them to the centre to check whether they are harmful to patients,” said a drug administrator at the DDA.

“As we lack a mechanism to check whether certain drugs have dangerous side effects, we have to rely on patients’ complaints. The sad fact is most of the patients do not complain,” said the drug administrator. “The ADRM body will collect patients’ complaints and report directly to Uppasala.”