title: [Pharmacovigilance in Germany : It is about time].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pharmacovigilance is defined as the activities relating to the detection, assessment, and prevention of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Although its beginnings in Germany date back more than 50 years, a stagnation in this field has been observed lately.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Different tools of pharmacovigilance will be illustrated and the reasons for its stagnation in Germany will be elucidated.
  
  
  METHODS
  Spontaneous reporting systems are an important tool in pharmacovigilance and are based on reports of ADRs from treating physicians, other healthcare professionals, or patients. Due to several weaknesses of spontaneous reporting systems such as underreporting, media bias, confounding by comorbidity or comedication, and due to the limited quality of the reports, the development of electronic healthcare databases was publicly funded in recent years so that they can be used for pharmacovigilance research. In the US different electronic healthcare databases were merged in a project sponsored by public means resulting in more than 193 million individuals. In Germany the establishment of large longitudinal databases was never conceived as a public duty and has not been implemented so far. Further attempts to use administrative healthcare data for pharmacovigilance purposes are severely restricted by the Code of Social Law (Section 75, Book 10). This situation has led to a stagnation in pharmacovigilance research in Germany.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Without publicly funded large longitudinal healthcare databases and an amendment of Section 75, Book 10, of the Code of Social Law, the use of healthcare data in pharmacovigilance research in Germany will remain a rarity. This could have negative effects on the medical care of the general population.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Klinische Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Deutschland. antonios.douros@charite.de.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Douros
authors.affiliation: Institut für Klinische Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Deutschland.|Pharmakovigilanz- und Beratungszentrum für Embryonaltoxikologie, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Deutschland.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schaefer
authors.affiliation: Institut für Klinische Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Deutschland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kreutz
authors.affiliation: Klinische Epidemiologie, Leibniz-Institut für Präventionsforschung und Epidemiologie - BIPS, Bremen, Deutschland.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Garbe
mesh_terms: D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions / Q000453:epidemiology*; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005858:Germany; D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D019221:Mandatory Reporting; D060735:Pharmacovigilance
keywords: Adverse drug reaction reporting systems; Benefit–risk assessment; Drug approval; Electronic healthcare databases; Research, pharmacovigilance