More than $1 million has been awarded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) and Medsafe to support research aiming to improve the post -market surveillance and monitoring of therapeutic products in New Zealand through the Product Vigilance Joint Venture initiative.

The initiative supports applicants to engage in research activities that will produce gains for New Zealand and offer significant leverage to build New Zealand's health research capacity.

Details of funding offered to the research team in the Product Vigilance Joint Venture initiative are as follows:

Product Vigilance: Developing an Integrated System 36 months, $1,007,878 Principal investigator: Dr Michael Tatley, New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre, University of Otago, (03) 479 7247 Project Summary: As little is known about uncommon or long-term harmful effects of new medicines when they are first released, it is essential to have an ongoing monitoring system for early identification/investigation of unwanted effects. This research programme will develop a comprehensive system to monitor the safety of medicines in New Zealand.

It will involve: Improving medicines safety information sources through development/linkage of new/existing electronic health datasets. Identifying possible safety issues using sophisticated statistical techniques to 'scan' anonymised linked health datasets to determine whether serious harmful events are occurring more often than expected for particular medicines. Conducting detailed epidemiological investigations into possible adverse reactions. Improving communication with the public about medicine safety issues. Extending expertise and collaborations among current medicine safety researchers, and training new researchers

The benefits of this system will be earlier and more accurate identification/investigation of safety issues, and enhanced communication with health professionals and the public.