Safety Information

Adverse reaction reporting in New Zealand – 2021

What is being reported?
Who is reporting?
Reporting is easiest online

Thank you to everyone who submitted reports of suspected adverse reactions during 2021. You are making an important contribution to the safety monitoring of medicines in New Zealand. Reporting suspected adverse reactions enables Medsafe to quickly identify and respond to emerging medicine safety issues.

What is being reported?

In 2021, the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (CARM) received 3,581 reports of suspected adverse reactions. There were 2,092 reports for medicines, 1,470 reports for vaccines (excluding COVID-19 vaccine reports) and 19 reports for complementary or alternative medicines (CAMs) (Figure 1). The increase in vaccine reports for 2021 is likely due to increased reporting for the influenza vaccine.

Figure 1: Suspected adverse reactions to medicines, vaccines* and CAMs reported to the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring, 2017 to 2021

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Type	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Medicines	2,552	2,843	2,688	2,415	2,092
Vaccines	1,236	1,473	1,531	1,269	1,470
CAMs	26	57	28	29	19

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* The vaccine data does not include reports for COVID-19 vaccines. See here for COVID-19 vaccine reports.

Of all reports received in 2021, 16.3 percent were considered serious. Serious reports accounted for 25.1 percent of medicine reports, 3.8 percent of vaccine reports and 5.3 percent of CAM reports. A serious adverse reaction is defined as any reaction that results in death or is life-threatening, causes or prolongs hospitalisation, results in persistent or significant disability/incapacity, is a congenital abnormality or is a medically important event.

You can find more information about suspected adverse reactions reported in New Zealand on the Medsafe website using the Suspected Medicines Adverse Reaction Search (SMARS).

Who is reporting?

Anyone can submit a report. Figure 2 shows the number of reports received from health care professionals and consumers during the last five years. Nurses continue to submit most reports.

Figure 2: Number of reports received from health care professionals and consumers, 2017 to 2021

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Reported by	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
GPs	612	620	605	494	515
Hospital doctors	571	556	507	519	499
Hospital pharmacists	173	250	227	275	207
Community pharmacists	194	237	294	162	250
Nurses	1,348	1,548	1,604	1,369	1,509
Other healthcare professionals	216	81	220	119	20
Consumers	122	532	268	246	253