Legislation and current developments in adverse drug reaction reporting in Mongolia: how far are we?

Monitoring adverse drug reactions is a vital issue to ensure drug safety and to protect the general public from medication-related harmful effects. In order to properly monitor drug safety, a regulatory system needs to be in place as well as an infrastructure that allows for analyzing national and international safety data. In Mongolia, adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting activities have been implemented in the past decade. During this period, the basic structure and legal basis of an adverse drug reaction monitoring system was established. Because of the fragmented but growing healthcare system and the complexity of pharmaceutical issues in Mongolia, a sustainable process for the development of the adverse drug reaction reporting system is a key issue. The aim of this article is to disclose the Mongolian situation for the rest of the world and to share experiences on how an ADR reporting system can be developed towards a higher and more advanced level to contribute to both national and international drug safety issues. In this article, we review the features of the Mongolian health care and pharmaceutical systems, as well as the current development of the adverse drug reaction reporting system.