Recent developments in pharmacovigilance

Interviewer: We're joined today by Prof. Saad Shakir, who served as the director of the Drug Safety Research Unit in the UK for over 26 years, before stepping down only recently. Prof. Shakir is one of the leading world experts in pharmacovigilance, and he joins us today to discuss some of the key recent advancements in the field of pharmacovigilance. Prof. Shakir, thank you very much for joining us today. Prof. Shakir: Thank you for asking me. Interviewer: To start, what do you consider to be the most significant trends influencing pharmacovigilance in the past year or so? Prof. Shakir: Well, several. First one is the use of multiple data sources in pharmacovigilance and moving away from overreliance, and at some stage, almost exclusive reliance on spontaneous reporting, to the use of other data sources such as health service databases, disease registries, product registries, and other data sources. That's the first trend, and it's a very strong trend. The second one, as I think everyone would expect, is the introduction of AI into pharmacovigilance. A lot is being proposed and discussed, and it has now moved from the theoretical concept to actual practical applications. Although these practical applications are currently on the process side of pharmacovigilance,