OREANDA-NEWS. Pharmacovigilance is a crucial part of healthcare and is absolutely vital in improving the accuracy of medicine. Monitoring adverse drug reactions and evaluating the risk posed by the same to the consumers is the ambit of the pharmacovigilance industry. Pharmacovigilance is a continuous process and relies on its continuity to produce progressively more reliable results. The rising awareness about the importance of this process is leading to steady growth of the global pharmacovigilance market.

An NIH study released in February this year evaluated the withdrawal of 462 medicinal products from 1953 to 2013. The report concluded that not only were the reasons for withdrawal inconsistent across the world, but there were several discrepancies in the process as well. The study recommends increased coordination within international agencies and higher transparency in reporting adverse drug reactions to improve the current scenario. A 2012 report by the NIH had also shown that there was a significant increase in the number of people suffering from adverse drug reactions in the U.S. from 1999 to 2006, with rural areas and the geriatric demographic as the key victims.
 
The pharmacovigilance industry is thus driven by the consistent support provided by such reviews. According to Transparency Market Research, the global pharmacovigilance market was valued at US$2.4 bn in 2013. Exhibiting a robust 14.20% CAGR from 2014 to 2020, the market is expected to rise to a valuation of US$6.1 bn.
 
Which is the largest product segment of the global pharmacovigilance market?
 
The global pharmacovigilance is segmented on the basis of clinical trial phase into phase I, phase II, phase III, and post-marketing surveillance. Of these, post-marketing surveillance or phase IV exhibited the highest utilization of pharmacovigilance procedures. 
 
However, the phase III segment is expected to exhibit the highest CAGR in the forecast period due to the growing realization of the importance of carrying out pharmacovigilance procedures before it is marketed. Clinical studies to remove as much harmful material as possible before the substance is put on the market are becoming increasingly important in the global pharmacovigilance industry. Nevertheless, phase IV will remain the dominant segment of the global pharmacovigilance market, since the effects of a medicinal substance may vary minutely according to the genetic profile of a particular community and can thus only be studied after the substance has been sold.