Poison control and drug information centres have much in common with pharmacovigilance centres, both in organisation and from a scientific point of view. If pharmacovigilance is started in a country where a poison control or drug information centre is already in place it may be efficient to develop the pharmacovigilance system in conjunction with it. Expensive facilities such as secretariat, computer resources and library services can be shared.

In any case close collaboration between these organisations is desirable.