Introduction
The National Drug and Poison Information Center (NDPIC) is
section from the Drug sector at Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA). The NDPIC
aims to provide state of the art pharmaceutical information services to various
consumer, including health care providers , public, and industry through all
the available resources and consist with the scope of services of the Drug
sector.
To be the leader national center for drug and poison information
provision, with professional excellence and evidence based practices that
contribute to our services.
The mission of the NDPIC is to provide comprehensive,
objective, unbiased, and evidence-base information to health-care providers for
decision making and public or industry for awareness and safety, and to become
one of the national and international leader center for excellence in the
quality of information services, and best practice.
The following are the main goals of the NDPIC: Drug Information
Service:
1. Create a nationwide internet based
drug information service.
2. Provide timely responses to the drug
information requests from the public, healthcare professionals and policy
makers.
3. Remain current on topics of drug
safety and effectiveness worldwide.
4. Provide drug information support for
the new drug approval process and drug safety issues.
5. Participate in drug sector
newsletter for healthcare professionals.
6. Establish new SFDA database for
regulated drug patient information.
7. Review and evaluate the Saudi Arabian
and GCC registered drugs package inserts.
8. Review and evaluate the safety and
the Efficacy of new drugs.
9. Liaising with other local and
international drug information centers.
10. Participating in public health education and awareness
programs.
11. Training SFDA pharmacists in providing drug
information services.
12. Provide a rotation site for pharmacy students.
The following are the main goals of the NDPIC: Poison
Information Service:
1. Providing immediate information on
the management of all poisoning cases.
2. Participating in public poisoning
prevention educational and awareness programs.
3. Provide comprehensive, objective
expert advice service on pharmacological and toxicological problems in timely
manner.
4. Give special warnings to professional
health care workers concerning specific toxic risks.
5. Identify and evaluate the toxic risks
existing in a community, and evaluating the measures taken to reduce or
eliminate them.
6. Design , produce and distribute
poison information materials.
7. Training SFDA pharmacists in
providing poison information services.
8. Provide a rotation site for pharmacy
and medical students.
The NDPIC services will be provided from Sunday through Thursday
from 0730h-1530h. Out of working hours, all the NDPIC requests could
be send through e-mail message 24 hours per day, seven day per
week. Priority will be given to the requests for poison information, then
to the earliest drug information questions was sent to the center from the
public and health care providers. In addition, the center is planning to extend
the working hours to cover the whole day (24 hrs / 7 days a week).
Fax: 00966112057627