Pharmacovigilance in traditional chinese medicine safety surveillance

Abstract Purpose To give an overview of the current status including problems and efforts about pharmacovigilance in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) safety surveillance. Methods It is based on literature review and publicly available data in China. Results TCM led to several adverse drug reactions (ADRs) during the past few years and pharmacovigilance about TCM remained as a problem though great effort had been made to improve it. Conclusions Pharmacovigilance in TCM is still facing many challenges in playing critical roles in China. More attention should be paid to pharmacovigilance in TCM safety surveillance. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.