A MAJOR new initiative has been launched to find out more about the effects of medicines in pregnant and breastfeeding women.
The Safer Medicines in Pregnancy and Breastfeeding consortium brings together 16 organisations under a common pledge to meet the information needs of pregnant and breastfeeding women and healthcare professionals, through accessible, clear and consistent advice.
The partnership spans the NHS, regulators, and leading third-sector and charitable organisations.
The group has been tasked with developing a long-term programme of work to improve information provision on medicines for women who are thinking about becoming pregnant, are pregnant, or are breastfeeding.
In the UK, more than half of expectant mothers need to take some form of medication when pregnant, but not enough is known about the effects of taking medicines in pregnancy.
The consortium hopes to improve the availability of data and has welcomed the recommendations published recently in a report by an expert working group from the Commission on Human Medicines.
Recommendations of the report include the better capture and linking of existing data, exploring new ways to collect relevant information on exposure to medicines during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and improving access to and quality of data to further enable research.
More information about the initiative is available on this webpage created by the MHRA.
This page was correct at the time of publication. Any guidance is intended as general guidance for members only. If you are a member and need specific advice relating to your own circumstances, please contact one of our advisers.
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