Pharmacovigilance Flashcards
How does the Health Products regulation group Safeguard public health?
Ensure appropriate technical standards are met
Facilitate recalls, product withdrawals
*Made possible by legislation in place
How does the Health Products regulation group act as a facilitator?
Provide access to good quality and efficacious products
Support development of a high quality healthcare system
How does the Health Products regulation group act as an assurer?
Instill trust, confidence and credibility of products (home or abroad)
What are the range of health products regulated by HSA?
Investigational drugs Medical devices Cosmetics Tobacco products Therapeutic products (TPs) Complementary Health products (CAMs) Advanced therapy products (CTGT)
What are the 3 categories of Therapeutic products (TPs)?
POMs
GSL
Prescription only
What are the 3 categories of CAMs?
Vitamins, minerals and quasi medicine
Chinese proprietary medicine (CPMs)
Other traditional medicines
What is HSA’s role in tobacco product regulation?
Control is on the importers and wholesalers
- licensing the retailers
- control of tar and nicotine content
- also catch the underage (under 21) smokers
- advertisements of tobacco products regulated (not allowed in SG)
What is HSA’s role in CAMs?
- largely left to the market to import/sell
- job scope is in ensuring not adulterants, set heavy metal/microbial limit in legislation
- generally quite a free market (except Chinese proprietary medicines) –> not as intense as therapeutic products but similar –> all dealers have to list products w HSA
How does HSA regulate medical devices?
- relatively tight control, quite similar control to therapeutic products
- 4 classes of medical devices (A < B < C < D) in terms of tightness of control
What are the possible areas HSA can control in the Pre-market stage?
Clinical trials (therapeutic products)
Product registration/listing
Dealers* licensing
*dealers refer to manufacturers, wholesalers, importers, retailers
What are the possible areas HSA can control in the Placing-on-market stage?
Storage and distribution
Advertising
Supply and sale
What are the possible areas HSA can control in the Post-market stage?
Vigilance
Surveillance
Compliance monitoring
Enforcement
What are the advertisement controls laid out by HSA?
SG has tight controls on POMs due to consequences on pt perception
*only a few countries allow adverts for prescription medicines (i.e. US, NZ)
What are the health products subject to Good distribution practices (GDP) in SG?
- GDP control not done for CAM (vitamins and other traditional medicines etc..)
- GDP done for therapeutic products and medical devices
*GDP control (FYI: Good Distribution Practices (GDP) is a quality system for warehouse and distribution centers dedicated for medicines)
How does HSA approach risk management?
Risk based approach titrated according to inherent risks
- More stringent controls for high risk products
What risk level do TPs have?
High risk
*milligrams can result in beneficial/adverse effects
What is the level of control for TPs like?
TPs: Pre and Post market control
Approved when benefit > risk for intended population and use
- This R/B monitored post marketing (regulatory action can be taken when R/B changes)
- Tolerance for risk higher for drugs that have higher benefit (serious/ life-threatening conditions, cancer drugs, disease with few alternatives)
What is the level of control for Chinese proprietary medicines (CPMs) like?
CPMs: Listing process and Post market control
*a listing process –> still called a registration process, albeit a very much reduced one
What is the level of control for Cosmetics like?
Cosmetics: Notification Process and Post market control (companies just have to notify HSA what they are bringing in + make declarations i.e. no carcinogens in lipstick)
- dependent on post market controls to pick up poor quality products
What is the level of control for all other health products like (not TPs/CPMs/Cosmetics)?
*includes Traditional medicines, health supplements, homeopathic medicines
Others: Post market control
- dependent on post market controls to pick up poor quality products
What was the incident that led to the US Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDC)?
- What does FDC include?
16 Nov 1937 Elixir Sulfanilamide Tragedy (Poisonous solvent that was not safely tested)
- FDC included stronger drug safety requirements
What was the incident that led to the 1962 Kefauver-Harris Amendment to the FDC?
- What is the change?
Thalidomide Tragedy
- New drugs had to demonstrate substantial evidence of efficacy and safety for marketed indication
- Strengthened control on human experimentation
What are some major events in pharmacovigilance?
1975 Practolol –> Occulomucocutaneous Reaction –> resulted in Prescription event monitoring (PEM) in UK and NZ
1990 Bovine derived Biologicals –> BSE (prions) –> to reduce risks and use of cattle derived medicines
2004 Rofecoxib (Vioxx) --> MI --> new concepts of risk/risk balancing (MI protection > GI protection) risk/risk = which risk is greater
How are medicines licensed today?
Based on efficacy, safety and quality
How is efficacy usually shown?
Randomized trials
How is safety usually shown?
Animal testing
Phase 1 trials (human volunteers)
Phase 2 trials (Early trials on clinical pts)
Phase 3 trials (large scale trials)
Post-marketing surveillance/Pharmacovigilance
What kind of safety data do clinical trials provide and why?
Phase 2/3 trials pick up more common adverse events esp since the studies are powered for efficacy
Why do we say that for adverse EVENTS, causality is NOT implied?
not sure if the drug caused the adverse events
What do we mean when we say that for adverse REACTIONS, causality is ASSUMED?
WHO definition of ADR: A reaction that is _______/harmful & _______ & occurs at doses ________ ________ in man for prophylasis, diagnosis or treatment of disease of the modification of physiological function (excludes ______, drug abuse, ________ errors)
vs
side effect: any _______ effect occurring at doses _________ in humans that is related to the pharmacological properties of the drug; can be _______/______
No need to make confirmation that the drug causes the adverse reaction
- there are varying levels of causality
i. e. when 10 pts take and 10pts develop adverse events
- noxious
- unintended
- normally used
- overdose
- medication
- unintended
- normally used
- positive/negative
How can we overcome the fact that individual case assessment in reactions and causality is always problematic?
data from across the country can be collated to see if there is indeed causality –> just report it
What is the rule of three used in detecting rare ADR for a required sample size?
To pick up an ADR with an incidence of 1 in 100, a corresponding sample size of 300 (3x) is needed
*Statistical reasons, this gives 95% confidence interval
What does the rule of three mean when applied to a clinical trial with 1800 patients where no ADR was found?
There is only a 95% confidence that the true frequency of this ADR is less than 1 in 600
What are some limitations of clinical trials?
- Designed for efficacy
- Only detects common ADRs (1 in 100 to 1 in 1,000)
- Small* sample size
- Short duration (1-3 years)
*By the time drug is marketed, usually only ~3k pts exposed under ICH E1 guidelines
In terms of Cell, tissue and gene therapy products (CTGTP), why is it ok for those clinical trials to only involve a small number of patients?
The diseases treated are usually rare
How do vaccine trials differ from usual clinical trials in terms of required sample size and what is the reasoning?
Larger numbers are needed (in the range of 40k)
- needed to prove efficacy
- we are giving vaccines for healthy people –> need more exposure
What are the ICH E1 guidelines to assess clinical safety for drugs meant for chronic illnesses or repeated intermittent use for longer than 6 mths (non-life threatening conditions)?
- 300-600 patients exposed to drug
- 100 pts exposed for minimum of 1 year**
- *Reasonable assurance that true cumulative one year incidence is no greater than 3%
- Most ADRs develop within first few months of drug tx (concern that some ADRs develop >6months after tx)
What are 3 groups of drugs that get special considerations under the ICH E1 guidelines?
Anti-obesity
Anti-cancer
Anti-diabetics
What is the incidence of ADRs in US/UK/SG?
US: 6-7% hospital admissions, 100k annual deaths
UK: 5% hospital admissions, 1/1000 medical inpatient death
SG: 8% hospital admissions
What is the impact of ADRs for patients vs healthy individuals?
USD 3.5 billion (to manage 380-450k preventable ADRs)
- Double: mean length of stay, cost and risk of mortality for patients VS controls
What is pharmacovigilance?
Science of collecting, monitoring, researching, assessing and evaluating info from HPs and pts on adverse effects of health products with a view to:
- Identify new info on hazards
- Prevent harm to pts
- esp since R/B profile of a drug can change
- need to be able to identify the changes to decide on what we can do to reduce harm to patients
Why is pharmacovigilance relevant in SG?
- Biomedical Sci is the 4th economic engine (need PV to create confidence to set up BMS sector)
- Limitations of clinical trials
- Genetic/Envt influences
- Aging population (polypharmacy + susceptible)
- Increased use of CAMs (perception that it is safer)
Following worldwide drug recall data from the 2000s, what trend can we see?
There can be a long delay between launch and withdrawal (up to 24 years) –> usually in 1st 3-5years (period where pharmacovigilance needs to be intensified)
Why are there long delays between withdrawal and launch for certain withdrawn drugs?
Initial indications may not cause ADRs, but when used off-label or in combination with certain medications, ADRs can occur (i.e. changes in prescription patterns)
What is the pharmacovigilance framework?
- Signal/Risk detection (monitoring ADRs to detect risks & change in R/B)
- Risk assessment (assessing R/B)
- Risk minimization
- Risk communication (to optimize safe and effective use)
What are signals?
- An early indicator or warning* of a potential new problem with a drug or drug class
- Reported info on a possible causal relationship between an adverse event and a drug, the relationship being unknown or incompletely documented previously
- Usually >1 report needed to generate a signal
What are some sources of signals?
ADR reports*
Literature report
New epidemiological study
Randomized trials
How are international data involved in risk detection?
- WHO international drug monitoring program
- Environmental scanning (literature, media, other Regulatory Agencies)
- International Regulatory Exchanges (ASEAN, AU, NZ CA, Switzerland)
What are the Pre-market data involved risk detection?
Clinical trial and animal study data
What are the local data involved in risk detection?
- HCPs
- Autopsy reports, toxicology lab
3, Active surveillance initiatives (CMIS, Sentinel sites for vaccines, Registries for selected drugs)
4, Mandatory reporting for drug companies
What are the mandatory reporting measures for drug companies?
Serious reports within 15days
Study findings that alter R/B
Periodic safety update reports
Post-marketing studies (PRN in SG)
What percentage of drugs have undetected serious adverse effects prior to approval?
50%
What are the advantages of ADR reporting?
- Works for all drugs given to patients throughout drug’s marketed life
- Relatively Inexpensive
- Accessible to HCPs
- Can provide rapid identification of new ADRs
What are the disadvantages of ADR reporting? What are the difficulties of reporting an ADR?
- Low level of reporting
- Requires HPs to recognize ADRs (complicated by many ADRs mimicking naturally occurring illness + insufficient data*)
- Data relate to suspected associations only (could be false +ve)
- Lack of denominator** = no incidence rate (vs clinical trials fixed no of people)
- i.e. pt secretly takes CAMs w/o knowledge of doctor
- dont know how many pts took the drug (can estimate based on drug company sales)
What is the qualitative method of signal detection?
Case by Case evaluation on:
- Frequency
- Nature/type of event
- Time to onset
- Duration
- Rechallenge/dechallenge
What are the quantitative methods of signal detection?
Frequentist approach
Bayesian approach
How can signals be confirmed?
Hypotheses testing
Epidemiological study
*if signal is very strong, testing and studies may not be necessary prior to taking action
What are the kind of data considered for R/B (Risk-benefit) assessment?
- Efficacy data
- Safety data
- Therapeutic alternatives
- Type of disease (e.g. cancer/terminal illness, more risk can be taken)
- Impact on population
- Ability to mitigate risk
What are some likely outcomes when a drug is revaluated to have a favorable R/B analysis? (Risk minimisation & management)
- Enhancement of warnings in package inserts
- Change in indications (mitigate risk) (1st line –> now 2nd line)
- New contraindications
- Post market studies, registries (companies to do further studies)
Rare:
- Restriction to certain medical disciplines only
- Restriction of access to certain patients only
What is a black box warning?
The sternest warning by the US FDA that a medication can carry while remaining on the market
- anti-depressants and suicidality
- FQs and tendinitis/tendon rupture
- rosiglitazone and increased CV risk
*known adverse effects that regulators want the public to know