STATE OF THE MEDIA REPORT QUARTER 4, 2020 Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority (ZAMRA) Director General Bernice Mwale believes the media and health care providers have an active role to play in the effective monitoring of drugs for safety before they are dispensed to people. Ms. Mwale said Pharmacovigilance is a critical component of health care service as it is a tool which facilitates timely decision making and intervention on adverse medicine, casualty assessment and prevention pharmacovigilance involves monitoring and ensuring that drugs meet the set standards quality, safety and efficacy. Ms. Mwale said the detection of adverse drug reaction (ADR) or medicine quality problems is an important part of health care provision because it is a safety net to the protection of the rest of the population.“it is imperative to note that for a Pharmacovigilance system to function effective, it requires the active participation of all stakeholders, including the media, members of the public academia. Scientists and health care providers,” Ms. Mwale said. She was speaking yesterday during the pharmacovigilance advocacy for the Southern Province. Ms. Mwale said health care providers are the heart of any pharmacovigilance system and play a vital role in ensuring that safety information including adverse drug reaction, production problem quality or medicine errors, is promptly reported to the authority for casualty assessment and decision making. She implored medical personnel to engage and collaborate with ZAMRA in the implementation of pharmacovigilance activities to make sure there is a safe and rationale use of medicine Research, Ms. Mwale said has shown that the safety profile of medicines established during clinical trial may not be generalized to all patient population. P a g e 54 | 56