Pharmacovigilance in Europe: Place of the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) in organisation and decisional processes.

The new European legislation that came into force in July 2012 reinforced the organisation of pharmacovigilance by setting up a committee in charge of risk assessment for medicines, the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC). The PRAC has a remit covering the assessment of all aspects of the safety and the risk management of medicinal products for human use in the European Union. It deals with issues regarding pharmacovigilance signals, the periodic evaluation of benefit/risk reports from marketing authorization holders (MAH), risk management plans, post-marketing studies, variations or renewals of marketing authorisations, management of under surveillance drugs lists, inspections for pharmacovigilance reasons and audits of pharmacovigilance systems.