Govt launches NFI 7th edition, biovigilance programme, new apps to boost medicine safety

New Delhi: The Central government on Monday launched the 7th Edition of the National Formulary of India (NFI) and the ADR-PvPI 2.0 Mobile App for iOS users at the 6th National Pharmacovigilance Week programme organised by the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) here.

Union MoS Health & Family Welfare and Chemicals & Fertilisers Anupriya Patel also unveiled new initiatives to strengthen patient safety and pharmacovigilance and released the guidance document for hospitals in India for 'Safety Monitoring and Reporting of Medical Device-Related Adverse Events.'

The 6th National Pharmacovigilance Week, being observed from 17–23 September 2026, drew senior government officials, regulators, healthcare professionals, academicians, researchers and other stakeholders working to strengthen medicine safety and patient care.

Patel also announced that the Biovigilance Programme of India has been approved, under which IPC strengthened the reporting, assessment, monitoring and prevention of adverse events associated with medicines and biological products used in organ and tissue transplantation, including products administered to donors and recipients.

The 7th Edition of the NFI has also been made available digitally through NFI Online, the statement from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

The minister underscored that rational use of medicines and continuous safety monitoring are integral to public health, and that every patient must receive the right medicine, of assured quality.

Patel said India has built a strong indigenous ecosystem capable of generating, collecting, processing and analysing medicine-safety data from across the country. She described this capacity as an important dimension of Atmanirbhar Bharat in healthcare, enabling India to generate its own scientific evidence to support the safe and effective use of medicines.

Patel said the country has moved from the 123rd position during 2009–2014 to 8th globally in contributions to the WHO patient safety database. She said India’s transition from relying primarily on safety information generated elsewhere to producing and contributing its own pharmacovigilance evidence reflects a significant strengthening of national capacity.

The pharmacovigilance, materiovigilance and biovigilance initiatives will strengthen safety monitoring across medicines, medical devices and transplant procedures, the statement noted.

Patel said digital initiatives including NFI Online, IP Online, ADR-PvPI 2.0 Mobile App and the Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring System (ADRMS) are making medicine-related information and adverse-event reporting more accessible, transparent and responsive.

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