Ethics in Pharmacovigilance

Healthcare practitioners play a vital role in facilitating effective and ethical pharmacovigilance, as well as in translating evidence generated through pharmacovigilance activities into clinical practice to improve the care of patients and to improve population health. Physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and other health practitioners have ethical obligations stemming from their professional obligations to act in their patients’ best interests, to protect and promote the public good, and to maintain their professional competence. In turn, these obligations give rise to a host of ethical principles and considerations related to pharmacovigilance and the safe use of pharmaceuticals. This chapter outlines several of these key principles and considerations, including the fiduciary duty, the duty to protect the public from harm, the duty to maintain professional competence, privacy, consent, disclosure, equity, trust, inclusiveness, the duty to report, scientific integrity, the duty to use the highest quality evidence, and conflicts of interest.