Pharmacovigilance Interview Questions and Answers for Freshres & Experienced
1. What Is Pharmacovigilance?
Pharmacovigilance is the science of collecting, monitoring, researching, assessing and evaluating information from healthcare providers and patients on the adverse effects of medications, biological products, herbalism and traditional medicines
2. What Is The Minimum Criterion Required For A Valid Case?
- An identifiable reporter
- An identifiable patient
- A suspect product
- An adverse drug event
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3. What Is An Adverse Drug Event (ade)?
Any untoward medical occurrence in a patient or clinical investigation subject administered a pharmaceutical product and which does not necessarily have to have a causal relationship with this treatment.
4. What Is An Adverse Drug Reaction (adr)?
An adverse drug reaction is a “response to a drug which is noxious and unintended and which occurs at doses normally used in man for prophylaxis, diagnosis, or therapy of disease or for the modification of physiologic function.” Note that there is a causal link between a drug and an adverse drug reaction. In sum, an adverse drug reaction is harm directly caused by the drug at normal doses, during normal use.
5. What Is The Difference Between An Ade And Adr?
There may not be a causal relationship between a drug and an ADE, whereas, there is a causal link between a drug and an adverse drug reaction.
6. What Is Volume 9a?
Volume 9A brings together general guidance on the requirements, procedures, roles and activities in the field of pharmacovigilance, for both Marketing Authorisation Holders (MAH) and Competent Authorities of medicinal products for human use; it incorporates international agreements reached within the framework of the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH).
Volume 9A is presented in four parts:
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- Part I deals with Guidelines for Marketing Authorisation Holders;
- Part II deals with Guidelines for Competent Authorities and the Agency;
- Part III provides the Guidelines for the electronic exchange of pharmacovigilance in the EU
- Part IV provides Guidelines on pharmacovigilance communication
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7. When Do You Consider A Case To Be Medically Confirmed?
A case is considered to be medically confirmed if it contains at least one event confirmed or reported by an HCP (Health Care Professional)
Note:
HCP can be a physician, nurse, pharmacist, coroner or psychologist (only in Germany).
8. What Do You Mean By Causality?
Causality is the relationship between a set of factors. In Pharmacovigilance, causality is the relationship between the suspect product and the adverse drug event.
9. Name Some Data Elements In Icsr?Patient demographics:
Age, gender and race.
Suspect product details:
Drug, dose, dosage form, therapy dates, therapy duration and indication. Adverse event details: Event, event onset date, seriousness criterion, event end date and latency.
10. What Should A Narrative Consist Of?
A narrative should consist of precise and concise information about the source of report, patient demographics, patient’s medical history, concomitant medications, suspect product details and adverse event details in an orderly manner.
11. What Do You Mean By Meddra?
Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities.
12. Explain The Hierarchy In Meddra?
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- System Organ Class (SOC)
- High Level Group Term (HLGT)
- High Level Term (HLT)
- Preferred Term (PT)
- Lower Level Term (LLT)
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13. What Do You Know About E2a, E2b And E2c Guidelines?E2a:
E2a guidelines give standard definitions and terminology for key aspects of clinical safety reporting. It also gives guidance on mechanisms for handling expedited (rapid) reporting of adverse drug reactions in the investigational phase of drug development.
E2b:
E2b guidelines for the maintenance of clinical safety data management and information about the data elements for transmission of Individual Case Safety Reports.
E2c:
E2b guidelines for the maintenance of clinical safety data management and information about the Periodic Safety Update Reports for marketed drugs.
14. What Are Data Assessments In Pharmacovigilance?Data assessments are:
- Individual case report assessment
- Aggregated assessment and interpretation
- Signal detection
- Interactions and risk factors
- Serial study
- Frequency
- Estimation
15. What Are The Types Of Pharmacovigilance (pv)?
Two types. 1. Active PV and 2.Passive PV
Active PV:
Active (or proactive) safety surveillance means that active measures are taken to detect adverse events. This is managed by active follow-up after treatment and the events may be detected by asking patients directly or screening patient records. The most comprehensive method is cohort event monitoring (CEM)
Passive PV:
Passive surveillance means that no active measures are taken to look for adverse effects other than the encouragement of health professionals and others to report safety concerns. Reporting is dependent on the initiative and motivation of the potential reporters. This is the most common form of pharmacovigilance. It is commonly referred to as “spontaneous” or “voluntary” reporting.
16. When Do You Consider An Event To Be Serious?
If an event is associated with any one of the following, it is considered to be serious
- Death
- Life threatening
- Hospitalization or prolongation of hospitalization.
- Congenital anomaly
- Disability
- Medically significant
17. Name The Regulatory Bodies In Usa, Uk, Japan And India?
- USA: United States Food and drug administration (USFDA).
- UK: European Medicines Agency (EMEA).
- Japan: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW).
18. What do you know about E2a, E2b and E2c guidelines?
- E2A Clinical Safety Data Management: Definitions and Standards for Expedited Reporting
- E2B (R2) Maintenance of the Clinical Safety Data Management including Data Elements for Transmission of Individual Case Safety Reports
- E2B (R3) Clinical Safety Data Management: Data Elements for Transmission of Individual Case Safety Reports
- E2C (R1) Clinical Safety Data Management: Periodic Safety Update Reports for Marketed Drugs
- E2C (R2) Periodic Benefit-Risk Evaluation Report
19.What is IND approval?
The United States Food and Drug Administration’s Investigational New Drug (IND) program is the means by which a pharmaceutical company obtains permission to ship an experimental drug across state lines (usually to clinical investigators) before a marketing application for the drug has been approved.
20.What is EudraVigilance?
The European Union data-processing network and management system, established by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to support the electronic exchange, management, and scientific evaluation of Individual Case Safety Reports related to all medicinal products authorised in the European Economic Area (EEA). EudraVigilance also incorporates data analysis facilities.
21. What is the basic minimum required for a valid case?
- An identifiable reporter
- An identifiable patient
- A suspect product
- An adverse drug event
22.What are the due dates for safety reporting?
Safety reporting due dates are 7 days for IND Reporting and 15 days for NDA Reporting
23.What is inverted Black triangle in Pharmacovigilance?
A black triangle appearing after the trade name of a British medicine indicates that the medication is new to the market, or that an existing medicine (or vaccine) is being used for a new reason or by a new route of administration.The black triangle also highlights the need for surveillance of any adverse drug reaction (ADRs) that might arise from the use of a new medication.
24.What is Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI)?
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), New Delhi has initiated a nation-wide pharmacovigilance programme under the aegis of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. The programme is coordinated by The Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) located at Ghaziabad. The National Coordinating Centre (NCC) is operating under the supervision of Steering Committee to recommend procedures and guidelines for regulatory interventions in India.
25.What is a signal?
A ‘signal’ consists of reported information on a possible causal relationship between an adverse event and a drug, the relationship being unknown or incompletely documented previously. Usually more than a single report is required to generate a signal, depending upon the seriousness of the event and the quality of the information.