Authoring a periodic adverse drug experience report here's what you need to know!

Aggregate reporting involves preparation and submission of safety reports for a given medicinal product to worldwide regulatory agencies and constitutes an essential part of safety monitoring of a medicinal product. There are specific aggregate safety reports required for a molecule in development called development safety update reports while Periodic Adverse Drug Experience Reports (PADERs) and Periodic Safety Update Reports/Periodic Benefit-risk Evaluation Reports (PBRERs) are submitted for products with marketing authorization. Based on the periodic analysis of worldwide safety reports, product label is updated to optimize safe use of a medicinal product. PADERs are aggregate safety reports to be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for products approved for marketing in the United States (US). PADER submission starts once marketing authorization approval is received for a medicinal product by the sponsor. Quarterly and annual PADERs should be submitted within 30 and 60 days of data lock point, respectively. PADERs mainly involve presentation of case reports with serious unlisted events (15-day alert reports) in the form of narratives or in a tabular format. The present article focuses on the background, scope, structure of a PADER, and its submission timelines; lists differences between PADER and PBRER; and describes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for a PADER writer.

Audio-video recording of informed consent process: Boon or bane.

The Drugs Technical Advisory Board has recommended inclusion of audio-video (AV) recording of the informed consent process while conducting clinical trials in India. It is included as draft rule in the gazette of India notification dated 7(th) June 2013. This will soon become a law. There are many anticipated advantages of AV recording like reliability, transparency, and improvement in quality of conduct of informed consent process. However, at the same time the industry will need to address challenges in infrastructure, maintaining confidentiality, cost implication, and so on. AV recording will help reassure the government and community about standards maintained by the industry/institute while conducting informed consent process, thereby increasing society's faith in clinical research.