Module 9 2024

03/09/2024

Vaccines vs. Pharmaceutical products Safety & Reactogenicity

Guideline on good pharmacovigilance practices (GVP) Product- or Population-Specific Considerations I: Vaccines for prophylaxis against infectious diseases (EMA/488220/2012 ) ‘ Assessment of causality between adverse events and vaccines may be difficult : several vaccines are often administered concomitantly, it is inevitable that, with high vaccine uptake, incident cases of many natural diseases in given population cohorts will occur in temporal association with vaccination, and considerations of dechallenge and rechallenge are not relevant to many vaccines which are administered only once or have long- term immunological effects; ‘ ‘ concerns raised by the public may have an impact on the vaccination programme and should be adequately addressed ; ‘ ‘ effective communication about safety of vaccines and vaccination is difficult: perceptions of harm may persist despite evidence that a serious adverse event is not related to the vaccination, and communicating about vaccine safety to multiple audiences (e.g. healthcare providers, patients and parents) is complex. ‘

The Organisation for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs

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Vaccines vs. Pharmaceutical products Safety & Reactogenicity

Guideline on good pharmacovigilance practices (GVP) Product- or Population-Specific Considerations I: Vaccines for prophylaxis against infectious diseases (EMA/488220/2012 ) ‘the benefit-risk balance for vaccines also depends on factors acting at the population level including…. ‘ ‘Unlike most medicinal products which are given to treat an illness, prophylactic vaccines offer the potential to significantly reduce, or even eradicate, communicable diseases . This introduces a real dynamic to the balance of risks and benefits, whereby the former may outweigh the latter over time (e.g. live oral polio vaccine and vaccine associated paralytic polio). This may decrease tolerance to the risks of vaccines .’

The Organisation for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs

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