Pharmacist Arvid Cronlund is more than merited to head the Drug Safety department at Immedica Pharma. He has over 20 years of experience working with patient safety.
Patient safety is paramount for Immedica, since all medical products can cause side-effects. Our challenge – minimizing the risk for unwanted effects while still giving patients access to the benefits of treatment with our medicines.
Arvid and his colleagues’ work starts long before a drug is available to the patients. They are an integrated part of the drug development process to help people with rare diseases. For example, at this stage, they:
- make sure clinical trials are performed and analysed correctly
- evaluate the need to conduct any additional studies
- collect, compile and interpret safety data
- decide when a product is ready to go through the drug approval process
Not on our watch
As soon as a drug is approved and available to patients, the department for patient safety closely monitors it. A considerable part of their work is gathering and analysing information. They also make sure the medicine is used as intended and supply both patients and health care systems with information to promote safe and correct use.
– Immedica does not just provide a pharmaceutical, Arvid explains. We have an overall responsibility to ensure patients get optimal benefit from the treatment.
Reported deviations from a medicine’s intended behavior will reach Arvid and his colleagues. They go through every bit of information carefully.
– Our aim is naturally that no one should get unjustified harm from our drugs. The backside of pharmaceuticals is that there are almost always unwanted side effects. We ensure that our medicines provide more advantages than disadvantages to the patients, says Arvid.
Going the extra mile
Pharmaceutical companies must follow many different government regulations, laws, and legal systems to ensure patient safety.
– Success in our work means doing everything right. To guarantee success, in other words – patient safety, we also maintain a compliance framework including internal audits to ensure adherence.
Accuracy and correctness are watchwords for Arvid and his team members as it requires a systematic way of handling adverse reaction reports.
– For us, patient safety is our focus – nothing else. We must be consistent and make well-informed decisions on a scientific basis, which in the end is meaningful for healthcare professionals and helps our patients