Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) urges all stakeholders to report all the adverse events associated with nutraceuticals/ health supplements and food supplements.
Nutraceuticals are defined as any substance that are food or parts of food and provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease. The use of nutraceuticals/ health supplements/ foods for special dietary purposes is now widespread among the urban as well as rural populace in India. Incidence of ADRs due to use of nutraceuticals in the past have raised the concerns for regularly monitoring the safety of these products.
Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN), Hyderabad is one of the PvPI collaborating centres for monitoring the safety of nutraceuticals but they are not receiving enough ADRs due to lack of awareness amongst different stakeholders.
PvPI reported in an email to PharmaTutor that, “Currently, PvPI receives a very limited number of adverse drugs reactions (ADRs) related to the use of nutraceuticals/health supplements and food supplements; hence it is imperative to foster a culture of reporting adverse events associated with the use of such products to ensure patient safety.”
Therefore, PvPI urges all stakeholders including Clinicians, Nurses, Pharmacists, other allied health workers and also the common public to report all the adverse events associated with nutraceuticals/health supplements and food supplements.
Any stakeholders can report ADRs using PvPI Forms (Suspected ADR Reporting Form/ Medicines side-effects Reporting Form, Email (icsr.nccpvpi@gmail.com, pvpi.compat@gmail.com) or PvPI Helpline (1800-180-3024) or Mobile App (ADR PvPI)
