What is the main focus of pharmacovigilance?

The main focus of pharmacovigilance is to detect and prevent adverse pharmaceutical effects. This discipline plays a critical role in ensuring patient safety by monitoring the effects of medications once they are on the market. Pharmacovigilance involves the systematic collection and analysis of data regarding adverse drug reactions, which helps to identify previously unrecognized side effects and assess their impact on public health. By identifying these risks, appropriate measures can be taken to mitigate them, which may include updating safety information, modifying prescribing information, or even withdrawing a medication from the market if necessary.

This focus is essential not only for the health and safety of patients but also for maintaining public trust in healthcare systems and pharmaceutical products. It contrasts significantly with the other options, which do not prioritize patient safety to the same extent. For instance, while maximizing drug efficacy and increasing sales may be goals for pharmaceutical companies, they do not encompass the safety monitoring core to pharmacovigilance. Similarly, standardizing medical practices pertains more to protocols and guidelines in healthcare rather than the active surveillance and response to medication-related risks.