Liaquat Ali
Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, Bangladesh
Title: Pharmacovigilance as a tool for conducting clinical trials with plant-based medicines
Biography
Biography: Liaquat Ali
Abstract
Plant-based medicines can potentially be incorporated into mainstream medicine due to its fulfillment of the ‘Verification’ or ‘Falsification’ criteria, at least ‘on principle’, as required by any scientific investigation. Verification of claims regarding safety and efficacy of any medicine should ideally be resolved through clinical trials, but optimally designed clinical trial poses a difficult challenge in these systems of medicine. Due to long tradition as well as market demand, plant-based medicines are being legally prescribed in many countries of the world and a large section of human population, particularly in low resource settings, are still dependent on these medicines. Pharmacovigilance on these medicines is an urgent requirement in such countries and the investment may profitably be utilized if the requirement of some initial phases (1st and 2nd phases) of clinical trials in so called modern medicine can be skipped using data from the pharmacovigilance system. With proper study design, standardization of clinical and laboratory/other investigations and scientific approach towards data collection, analysis and interpretation, a combined approach in this respect may be possible. This will, on the one hand, generate some basic idea about the scientific validity of these medicines and, at the same time, it will create the ground for the next phase clinical trials in a much quicker pace. The first outcome is a moral responsibility of the scientific community and it is a legal responsibility of the policy makers and regulators. The second outcome, by saving lot of animal, natural and financial resources, may significantly contribute towards drug discovery and healthcare all over the world.