Centre for Safety & Rational use of Indian Systems of Medicine (csruism):

Worldwide movement for the improvement of patient safety is gaining momentum; hence the subject of drug safety becomes even more prominent in the present day scenario. In context of ASU, with increased use of drugs of these systems, the scope for adulteration, preparation of counterfeit drugs and development of formulations which do not have conceptual basis in these systems has increased. Further cultivation of medicinal plants with laboratory generated species is being attempted on the basis of chemical composition and is likely to be used in increased manner for commercial purpose. These changes may have profound impact on the safety and efficacy of the ASU drugs in the market. Hence a mechanism is required to be put in place to address them. Establishment of Pharmacovigilance Centre set-up is the first required step. Pharmacovigilance is the science dedicated to reduce the drug-related harms to patients. The number of adverse reactions to ASU drugs reported in the National Pharmacovigilance in India is negligible. The strong belief that ASU medicines are contributes to a large extent to this situation. To compound this matter is the lack of knowledge about the concept and importance of Pharmacovigilance in ASU among ASU practitioners.

In India, National Pharmacovigilance Programme under the control of Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) was started in 2003. WHO emphasizes that it should include traditional medicines in Pharmacovigilance system and has published guidelines on safety monitoring of herbal medicines in Pharmacovigilance systems in 2004. To promote the guidelines of WHO, Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences, took a novel task of improving the use of Indian originated drugs and their adverse reaction monitoring under the establishment of Centre for Safety & Rational Use of Indian Systems of Medicine (CSRUISM) in 2005. The centre has received many ADRs of herbal drugs, which were never reported earlier. These reactions for their causal relationships are assessed according to Naranjo ADR Probability Scale Evaluation & WHO Causality Categories. The Centre is also cooperating and assisting National Pharmacovigilance Programme for Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani (ASU) Drugs, which is currently being governed under the aegis of Institute of Post Graduate Teaching & Research in Ayurveda, Gujarat Ayurveda University, Jamnagar in collaboration with the Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and FW, Govt. of India, New Delhi.

CSRUISM has large publications on Pharmacovigilance specifically apart from main section on Pharmacology. It has exclusive collection of books and periodicals on Pharmacovigilance written by many authors; almost all the publications of WHO and WHO Collaborating Centre, UMC, Uppsala, Sweden; International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) and Society of Pharmacovigilance, India (SoPI).

CSRUISM is offered to exhibit the collection on PHARMACOVIGILANCE during the upcoming 14th Annual Conference of Society of Pharmacovigilance, India (For details click, SOPICON-2014)

In-charge CSRUISM
Ms. Zahra Hashemi, BPharm, Dip Pv