Keep Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Medicines Safe: Introducing MNCH commodities into a pharmacovigilance system

As countries aim to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, there is an emphasis on increasing the availability of medicines. However, poor quality products or dispensing methods may decrease treatment effectiveness or even result in patient death. ADEs negatively affect patient care and increase costs to the system. A functioning PV system monitors these events and triggers actions to minimize their impact. While some disease-specific areas, such as tuberculosis, have made PV a regular tenant of their treatment programs, medicines used for maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) are often ignored in reporting. This case study highlights steps taken to ensure the safe use of medicines for mothers, newborns, and children through regular adverse drug event (ADE) reporting as part of the national pharmacovigilance (PV) program in Bangladesh.