Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on drug safety surveillance: An analysis of spontaneous reporting databases in Canada and the United States

The COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on everyone and was heavily covered by the media. Studies have shown that the pandemic itself and the media coverage might have influenced the number of adverse drug reactions that were reported to regulatory agencies. This project aims at determining how it affected the reporting of all adverse drug reactions and the ones following COVID-19 vaccines. Therefore, the types of report, the severity of the reaction, if it was reported by a professional or the general population and the characteristics of the patient will be extracted from publicly available databases in Canada (Canada vigilance) and the US (VAERS). This information will then be compared pre-pandemic vs during the pandemic as well as according to the timing of safety warnings provided by the media.

Faculty Supervisor:

Anick Bérard

Student:

Partner:

Yola Rx Consultants

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Université de Montréal

Program: