The Pharmacovigilance Team Is There To Help You

Photo 44239580 © Ayse Ezgi Icmeli | Dreamstime.com

You work in a pharmaceutical or biotech company in the commercial or tech ops organizations, and you are really busy with the product launch preparations. You are doing your best for patients, colleagues and shareholders, but you keep getting these mind-numbing trainings on AE reporting requirements from the PV team. Such a distraction right?

Not so fast.

Your PV team members may seem to be single-minded in their mission to make life as difficult as possible for you, but in fact they are there to help you. They may not be most outgoing of people (at least that is true for me!), but they are driven by the need to protect the safety of patients and to ensure the company remains in compliance with all local and regional laws and regulations.

Here are 2 simple suggestions to help the PV team help you....

1) Say Hello - This will really make their day. Quite often the work they do requires focused time and effort, and it can get rather isolating. Especially if you are in the vicinity (assuming you are in the office), drop by for a coffee and brief chat. Building the relationships now can save you big down the road.

2) Ask Questions - This is also the perfect time to ask questions if you are not sure about anything related to PV requirements. Having this conversation when things are under control is more preferable to one that happens as a result of a stack of unreported AEs, or a quality issue affecting product in the market.

If you only see the PV team as the problem, you will inevitably be reluctant to raise potential issues in the future. PV professionals are by nature risk averse, so we will do whatever we can to help you get ahead of the curve to reduce the risk for patients and the company.