Our Commitment to Patient Safety

Medicines play an important role in making life better for people. Beginning with the discovery of a potential new medicine, and for as long as it is available to patients, our goal is to ensure that its benefits and risks are continuously monitored and well-understood by regulators, health care providers and patients.

Pharmacovigilance is the process of collecting, monitoring, researching and evaluating information from health care providers and patients for the purposes of understanding and preventing drug-related problems. Safety information is collected to monitor and maintain the safety profile of all Lilly products.

The laws governing the development, manufacturing and marketing of products (drugs or devices) require that their manufacturers collect adverse events. Lilly collects adverse event reports and enters the information into a common electronic database to further evaluate the safety and risks of our products.

Physicians, other health care providers and patients are encouraged to voluntarily report adverse events (or side effects) involving drugs or medical devices.

How We Fullfill This Commitment

• Patients: Medications are just one of many important tools that doctors use in treating short-term and long-term health conditions. Taking medications exactly as your doctor prescribes is the first and most important step on the road to better health. If you find you aren't responding well to a medication, or if you have concerns regarding your medication, call your doctor right away and talk about it.

• Health Care Providers: Lilly wants health care providers to report all adverse events (or side effects) associated with medications. This includes both non-serious events and serious events, regardless of their severity or outcome. This helps ensure that we provide health care providers with the best understanding we have about the risk profile of our medications.

• Health Canada’s Role: Learn about Health Canada's role, including information on Mandatory Reporting for Hospitals.