A system to enable the early detection of new side effects of recently marketed drugs

The system would work as follows: when a patient taking a recently marketed drug develops a symptom, the symptom is entered on the computer in the usual way. If the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has already received a report/reports of the same symptom experienced by a patient taking the newly marketed drug, an alert would appear on the screen saying ‘this is a suspected side effect of the newly marketed drug A. Please click on the link to report this suspected side effect to the MHRA.’

The MHRA would simultaneously extract from the patient’s record their current medication and other relevant patient data, all in an anonymised form. This way, new and possibly dangerous side effects of recently marketed drugs could be detected at an early stage.

To my knowledge, such a system does not currently exist. If this facility was rolled out worldwide, even earlier detection of new side effects of recently marketed drugs could be achieved.

• © British Journal of General Practice 2023