Last week, the European Medicines Agency announced the launch of a new website that contains reports on suspected side effects of medications, CMIO reports.
The information in the reports comes from EudraVigilance, a drug safety database that EMA maintains for European Union member states.
The website currently offers reports on about 650 drugs and active ingredients (Stuart, CMIO, 6/1). Each report details adverse reactions that patients, physicians and pharmaceutical companies have reported to regulatory authorities in the EU (AFP/Google News, 6/1).
Users can view the adverse reaction data by:
- Age group;
- Gender;
- Type of suspected side effect; or
- Outcome (CMIO, 6/1).
Officials emphasized that the data relate to suspected side effects. The EMA release stated, "Suspected side effects may not be related to or caused by the medicine, and as a result, the published information cannot be used to determine the likelihood of experiencing a side effect or as an indication that a medicine is harmful."
The reports currently are available only in English, but EMA plans to release the data in the EU's 22 other official languages in the coming weeks (AFP/Google News, 6/1). The agency also eventually plans to release reports on additional medicines (CMIO, 6/1).