Dear Well-wishers,

I am heartened to script this March 2017 edition of Oviya MedSafe’s newsletter, which marks our illustrious 60th monthly issue that aspires to curate memorable moments from the enthusiastic celebrations of Oviya MedSafe’s 5th anniversary! Apart from reporting the Drug Diligence 2017 event that was held on this account, I will also outline in this bulletin some experiences I gathered while speaking at two other important conferences during the month, as already assured in our February 2017 newsletter.

My eager anticipation for March 2017 began with the pleasant surprise of a personal invitation to me from veteran pharmacologist and President of ISPOR India Regional Chapter Prof Dr S K Gupta (Advisor, Pharmacovigilance Programme of India) to speak on the topic ‘The Role of Pharmacovigilance in Pharmacoeconomics’ at the 5th National Conference of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research organized under the aegis of ISPOR India at New Delhi! The conference was a privileged opportunity for me to closely interact with Dr S K Gupta and with Prof Dr Ramesh K Goyal, Vice Chancellor of Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences & Research University (DPSRU) where the programme was conducted. I am glad to share with you some pictures from the event, through this link.

While preparing for my talk, I had a chance to dive deeper into the fascinating science of Pharmacoeconomics, all the time trying to draw parallels with my subject of Pharmacovigilance. Although it is evident that Pharmacoeconomics considers the safety aspects of a drug to be a key determinant during its cost-effectiveness analysis, I could better appreciate the fact that the dynamic nature of the benefit-risk profile of any drug means that pharmacoeconomic measures too need to be constantly reviewed as and when new Pharmacovigilance information emerges. During my talk, I also highlighted reasons for why pharmacovigilance and pharmacoeconomics professionals need to work together in the long run, for the benefit of patients. It is my pleasure to share with you the slide deck of my presentation, which can be accessed through Oviya MedSafe’s downloads page.

Coming to the core topic of the 5th anniversary of Oviya MedSafe’s founding, I hope you might recall that Oviya MedSafe partnered with event management firm VHEO Ventures, to organize Drug Diligence 2017, a National Conference & Workshop on Pharmacovigilance, at IMA Hall, Coimbatore. Drug Diligence 2017 was inaugurated by the Chief Guest Dr Y K Gupta, Professor & Head of the Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi who is also the National Scientific Coordinator of the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India. Dr N Shanthi, Professor & Head of the Department of Pharmacology, Coimbatore Medical College, Coimbatore was the Guest of Honour. Ms Indu Nambiar, Senior Manager – Local Pharmacovigilance, Boehringer Ingelheim India Pvt Ltd, Mumbai and Ms Vasumathi Sriganesh, Honorary CEO, QMed Knowledge Foundation, Mumbai offered felicitations. During the inauguration, I presented a report of Oviya MedSafe’s achievements in the past 5 years. Dr V Janarthanan, Chairman, Oviya MedSafe welcomed the gathering and Dr C J Arun Raja, Director, Oviya MedSafe delivered the vote of thanks. The dignitaries deliberated upon various pharmacovigilance topics and also honoured all speakers of Oviya MedSafe, voluntary supporters of the event and the winners as well as participants of the paper presentation session held as part of the two-day event.

I take this opportunity to immensely thank Dr Y K Gupta for accepting my invitation and coming all the way from New Delhi to inaugurate Drug Diligence 2017 and wish all of us at Oviya MedSafe on our 5th anniversary. It was a defining moment in my life to host him at Coimbatore on this special occasion, especially in the presence of my teacher Dr N Shanthi, to whom I owe a lot of gratitude. I also wish to thank Ms Vasumathi Sriganesh and Ms Indu Nambiar for the time and effort they put in for effectively sharing their knowledge with the delegates. Some pictures from the Inauguration, proceedings of Day 1, proceedings of Day 2 and the Valediction may be viewed / downloaded from the respective links. The detailed post-event Press Release prepared by VHEO Ventures is available on our website. At this juncture, I wish to acknowledge the media houses Express PharmaPharmabizCovai Post and PV Chronicle whose extensive coverage of Drug Diligence 2017 helped a great deal in raising awareness about the programme.

Following the successful Drug Diligence 2017, I travelled to Mumbai to speak at PV Fast Forward – Technology, Pace, Priority – the annual pharmacovigilance conference of the Drug Information Association (DIA) in India. During my speech titled ‘Indian Pharmacovigilance – Where do we stand today?‘, I presented a status update on the initiatives taken for pharmacovigilance of the Indian population followed by a SWOT Analysis of the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI), adapted and developed further from my recent article for Global Forum, the official magazine of the DIA. With the added honour of representing India on the editorial board of Global Forum from April 2017, it was an appropriate topic for me to speak on at the august gathering. The session was well-received by the audience and led to quite a lot of interaction. Pharmabiz quoted my presentation at this conference, while publishing a report on a related topic. It is my duty to thank DIA for inviting me to also serve on the Program Committee of this resourceful event.

Before signing off, I wanted to update you that some details of the UK Pharmacovigilance Day 2017 (London) and the Indian Pharmacovigilance Day 2017 (Hyderabad) conferences which I will be chairing have been updated on their respective websites. Please keep watching these websites for more information in the next few weeks.

Waiting to re-connect with you through our April 2017 edition,

With thanks & regards,
Dr J Vijay Venkatraman
MBBS, F. Diab., MBA, FPIPA (UK)

Managing Director & CEO,
Oviya MedSafe Pvt Ltd,
Coimbatore, India
Phone: +91-422-2444442

Director,
Oviya MedSafe UK Ltd,
London, UK
Phone: +44-8452-733839

Web: www.oviyamedsafe.com
Mail: info@oviyamedsafe.com
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