The East African nation was selected by New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) effective after beating five African countries, national regulatory authorities and universities who had responded to NEPAD call for applications.

“This means Kenya is now a model where other African countries are expected to come to learn Pharmacovigilance activities,” the Pharmacy and Poisons Board said in a statement unissued in Nairobi.

WHO defines Pharmacovigilance (PV) as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problem.

The PPB was nominated by NEPAD, primarily for the regional center’s ideal location and the quality of services it provides and application was open to all the National Drug Regulatory Authorities in Africa.

The Pharmacovigilance center has a newsletter that regularly shares with its clients to update them on the latest development on issues of pharmacovigilance.

The center has also successfully carried out an active surveillance study on monitoring the safety of artemether lumefantrine and is currently data cleaning and analyzing.

“Through the center, PPB has also carried out Post marketing studies of products like antimalarials, anti TBs, ARVs and most recently reproductive health products,” the statement said.

To carry out its mandate, the centre receives financial support from the PPB, development/implementing partners and pharmaceutical industry.

PPB provides overall leadership for the implementation of the “one” national and integrated Kenya Pharmacovigilance System.

“This prestigious award now means we have the freedom to set our own research priorities and the opportunity to think strategically and focus on the long term,” said PPB Registrar Kipkerich Koskei.

With support from partners, PPB has prioritized training of health workers and other stakeholders such as representatives of the Pharma industry in Kenya on pharmacovigilance and medicine safety.

By March, over 10,000 individuals drawn from the public and private sectors in Kenya had undergone the training.

Kenya is the 98th member of the WHO international drug monitoring program contributing to the database on the Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs).

In Africa, Kenya is the fourth leading reporter and the leading in the East and Central African Region. It has reported more than 7,600 suspected Adverse Drug Reactions to the WHO database.