LOCAL medical company Panacea Pharma Projects (PPP) will attend an international medicine conference in Lisbon next week.

General manager Matthew McSevney and head of pharmacovigilance Steve Proudlove from PPP will attend the European Generic Medicines Association's (EGA) 17th annual conference on June 16 and 17.

Matthew explained: "Pharmacovigilance is a sector of growing significance to the Isle of Man so PPP being represented at the EGA annual conference is important to the company and the Island.

"There are increasing demands being made on Europe's health services and generic medicines provide a major benefit to society as they ensure patient access to quality, safe and effective medicines while reducing the cost of pharmaceutical care."

The EGA was formed in 1993 and represents generic pharmaceuticals companies and their subsidiaries either directly or through national associations.

In addition, the EGA plays an important consultative role in European healthcare policy-making and works with its members in assisting European national governments and the EU institutions to develop affordable solutions for pharmaceutical care.

PPP is a specialist in pharmacovigilance and works as a consultancy for pharmaceutical companies to detect and assess any safety concerns which may relate to prescription drugs.

Its work involves monitoring potential long term and short term side effects of medicines which it does by gathering data from a wide range of sources across the world.

This data is then used to highlight any concerns about the safety of particular drugs or medicines and manufacturers can then analyse data to decide whether recalls of drugs are necessary.