Pharmacovigilance. The French system

The French system of drug surveillance (pharmacovigilance) is a combination of mandatory reporting and intensive hospital surveillance. The Regional Centres are decentralised but coordinated through a national network. An algorithm index is used to assess the relationship between drugs and adverse effects. The adverse reactions alert system is produced by the compilation and analysis of the cases entered in a data bank (8062 in 1988) and by the analysis of queries from general practitioners (20,000 in 1988). The duties of the centres are also to provide information, analyse data and to improve the safe use of drugs.