Thankfully, adverse events such as harmful, unexpected side-effects to animal medicines are extremely uncommon. Before any animal medicine is allowed onto the UK market it has, by law, to satisfy very strict criteria on its quality, its effectiveness and its safety. However, once an animal medicine is in use, it is vital to know if any animals or people suffer unexpected problems following use or exposure to the product under field conditions.

Very occasionally animals may have a reaction following use of a medicine. If you are an animal owner and your animal is unwell after treatment with an animal medicine or if you are at all worried, contact your vet.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), which administers the licensing system for animal medicines, is responsible for pharmacovigilance in the UK, giving advice on reporting adverse events linked to the use of animal medicines. The purpose of pharmacovigilance is to detect, understand and prevent adverse events, and this is built on robust reporting system, to monitor any and evaluate the reported adverse events. Marketing Authorisation Holders are legally obliged to advise the VMD of any reports they receive.

Reports received by the VMD are prioritised in terms of severity and likely causality (i.e. to see whether the problem is likely to be linked to the medicine). They also analyse whether there have been any other reports about the same product or others like it, whether any further information is required and whether any follow-up is required.

Paper forms will no longer be included in the NOAH Compendium 2020 onwards.