[Postmarketing survey on the clinical use of cefotiam]

We performed a survey of clinical experience of cefotiam (CTM: Pansporin) as postmarketing surveillance (PMS), and evaluated the efficacy and safety of CTM in 10,499 cases of data which were collected during the first 2 years after approval. The following results were obtained. The efficacy rate of CTM in the treatment of various infections was 83.2%, which was equal or superior to the clinical results obtained before approval. A total of 472 adverse drug reactions was reported by 10,499 patients (4.50%). The commonest adverse drug reactions was liver function abnormality (230 cases), followed by dermal symptoms (103 cases), gastrointestinal symptoms (53 cases) and renal function abnormality (20 cases) in the order mentioned. All of these adverse drug reactions had already been known for cephem antibiotics, and no remarkable adverse drug reactions specific to CTM was found. The above PMS results indicate the same efficacy of CTM that obtained from premarketing studies. As regards safety, there was no remarkable unexpected adverse drug reaction and their profile was also the same as that found in premarketing studies. Thus, the utility of CTM was confirmed.

Selection of scientific periodicals to monitor drug safety information using Excerpta Medica and Japicdoc in the post marketing surveillance of drugs

In order to select important journals to be monitored for efficient collection of literature information on drug safety, a retrospective search was made of the safety information in the Excerpta Medica (EM) database between 1979 and 1981. The search provided 54,005 references to drug safety, which were found in a total of 2,536 journals. Fifty percent of the references appeared in only 148 journals, or 6% of all journals surveyed. A similar search, carried out using the Japicdoc (JD) database, provided 9,268 references in 172 journals. To cover all the necessary information appearing in overseas journals, however, a retrospective search of a bibliographic database is required as a cost-effective means to improve the comprehensiveness of the collection of information. In domestic journals, because JD includes fewer journals than EM, all of the 172 journals can be monitored for the collection of drug safety information.