Sources of Spontaneous Adverse Drug Reaction Reports Received by Pharmaceutical Manufacturers

Abstract

During the first quarter of 1986, 20 pharmaceutical manufacturers identified the original source for 5,744 domestic spontaneous postmarketing ADR reports. Overall, 27% of these reports originated with the field staff employed by the manufacturers and 34% originated with telephone calls made by health-care providers. The remaining 39% was derived from written provider reports, consumer reports, or the literature. Considerable variation in these percentages was found among manufacturers. Although some correlation was found between the number of field staff visits and the number of reports originating from field staff for some manufacturers, the frequency of field staff visits was not predictive of the number of reports obtained by most manufacturers.