ABSTRACT
In June 1963, the Health Ministers of the United Kingdom established the Committee on Safety of Drugs and appointed Sir Derrick Dunlop as Chairman. The reporting requirements for doctors and dentists are similar: all suspected adverse reactions (ADR) to new drug products and serious reactions to established products should be reported. All adverse reaction reports originating in the United Kingdom from doctors and dentists in clinical practice or from the pharmaceutical industry are given a unique registration number, acknowledged, and medically assessed. The chief function of the yellow card spontaneous reporting scheme is to provide a means by which early warnings of adverse drug reactions are identified. Any spontaneous ADR reporting scheme has many limitations affecting the interpretation of data gathered. the yellow card system has assisted in the documentation of adverse reactions. Comparisons between members of a therapeutic drug group have provided a degree of reassurance about toxicity, especially when used with data from other sources.
