ABSTRACT
Pharmacovigilance, also known as Drug Safety, is the pharmacological science relating to the collection, detection, assessment, monitoring, and prevention of adverse effects from pharmaceutical products. In other words, pharmacovigilance focuses on adverse drug reactions, which are defined as any response to a drug which is noxious and unintended, including lack of efficacy. Although a technical term equivalent to “pharmacovigilance” does not feature in Ayurvedic texts, the spirit of pharmacovigilance is vibrant throughout Ayurveda’s classical literature. Ayurveda’s Anupan therapeutic method and Shodhan pharmaceutics principles probably also contribute to the prevention of many undesired and unforeseen events. Prevention of this kind is a major goal of pharmacovigilance programs. The success in any pharmacovigilance system is in the ability to prevent further adverse reactions successfully by understanding and using the information collected. The Ayurvedic pharmaceutical industry is not motivated to focus on pharmacovigilance of Ayurvedic medicines.
