The Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé (French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products) is responsible for the steering and national coordination of the vigilance procedures relating to the health products referred to in Article R. 1413-61-1.
The Agency carries out a scientific assessment of all information in order to examine options for preventing or reducing risks and, if necessary, to take appropriate measures. To this end, it relies on the centres and coordinators mentioned in Article R. 1413-61-3 responsible for evaluating reports and detecting signals concerning adverse events involving health products and other products, substances or plants with psychoactive effects mentioned in Article L. 5133-1, under the conditions defined in the agreement mentioned in II of Article R. 1413-61-6.
In addition, the Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé may call upon the centres and coordinators mentioned in Article R. 1413-61-3 to carry out the expert missions mentioned in 5° of the I of Article R. 1413-61-4, in terms of risk assessment relating to health products, on the basis of a call for candidates.
In urgent cases, the Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé may directly request the expertise of the centres and coordinators mentioned in Article R. 1413-61-3 and the professionals mentioned in the last paragraph of the same article. The Director General of the Agence nationale du médicament et des produits de santé and the Director General of the Regional Health Agency keep each other regularly informed of the expertise entrusted to the centres and coordinators in the region, in accordance with the procedures laid down in the agreement referred to in II of Article R. 1413-61-6.