VigiBase Services
VigiBase services are your window to VigiBase – WHO's global database of reported potential side effects of medicinal products.
Access the leading source of global safety data
Apply insights from the world’s largest, most diverse, structured set of patient safety records to your drug development, research, or software projects.
VigiBase is the richest source of pharmacovigilance data in the world. All of the more than 145 members of the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring (WHO PIDM) submit structured, detailed individual case safety reports to VigiBase, knowing that they contribute to the global effort to prevent patients suffering harm from their medicines.
VigiBase is at the heart of UMC’s signal detection and scientific research. It can also serve a vital role in your work. VigiBase Services, backed by UMC’s expertise, give you a global safety surveillance snapshot of a dataset unmatched by any other source.
With VigiBase Services, you get the benefit of data that is both vast and diverse. The national centres contributing data represent 99% of the world’s population and VigiBase includes the public datasets of spontaneous reports from the US databases FAERS and VAERS, Europe’s EudraVigilance, and many national databases from across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania.
Choosing the right VigiBase Service for your needs
While national pharmacovigilance centres access VigiBase through the VigiLyze system, and members of the public can view limited data via VigiAccess, other professional users can apply to use the specialised services VigiBase Extract Case Level, VigiBase Custom Searches, VigiAccess API. UMC also offers VigiBase Training designed to complement our other services. Fees for all VigiBase Services are set on a cost recovery basis to support UMC’s global patient safety activities while ensuring affordable value for users.
Explore the VigiBase Services below or contact us to discuss your needs.
VigiBase Services quick links
VigiBase Extract Case Level
VigiBase Extract Case Level enables use of the public VigiBase information as a background for signal detection and risk management in third party software. A subscription to VigiBase Extract Case Level lets you download all VigiBase Extract data as flat text files, updated four times each year. It enables frequent searching involving multiple medicines, at high volume. It also includes important demographics to enable subgroup analysis (anonymised and limited in certain case details to protect privacy concerns).
VigiBase Custom Searches
For professional colleagues, UMC offers custom searches of VigiBase data. Let us know the purpose of your request and your search criteria, and our expert pharmacovigilance staff will optimise the search and reported result to help you identify the most relevant information or insight in a convenient, structured format. VigiBase data is updated twice weekly so you always get the most up-to-date results.
VigiAccess API
VigiAccess API is a fully documented application programming interface that allows software developers to offer added value to their own customers by building the benefits of VigiAccess searches directly into their software products.
Other services
The WHO Adverse Reaction Terminology (WHO-ART) is a legacy tool that was used for coding adverse reaction terms covering most medical terms needed in adverse reaction reporting. WHO-ART is no longer actively maintained. Learn more about WHO-ART.
National pharmacovigilance centres from full members of the WHO PIDM are entitled to use VigiLyze.
Members of the public can access a limited view of VigiBase data via WHO’s VigiAccess website.
Training
The data provided by VigiBase Services is complex. Understanding and analysing that data requires specialised knowledge and expertise. UMC offers a range of e-Learning courses to help professionals improve their pharmacovigilance skills. In particular, users of VigiBase Services may benefit from the courses Signal detection and causality assessment and Statistical reasoning and algorithms in pharmacovigilance.
Read more about UMC’s e-Learning options
Limitations
Any release of data from VigiBase is accompanied by a caveat document that describes the nature and limitations of the data. Any use of VigiBase data in scientific publications should be informed by the study guidelines document.