You are pregnant and in need of an important medication, but nobody knows if the medication is safe for the fetus. Should you stop taking the drug? Or close your eyes and hope for the best? A new research venture is going to crack enormous amounts of data from all over Europe to find the answers that women need in these situations.
“On average, it takes an estimated 27 years to determine if a novel medication can be used by pregnant women without risking adverse effects on the fetus or child. This just can’t continue any longer”, says Professor Hedvig Nordeng at the University of Oslo’s Department of Pharmacy.
More than 5 million women become pregnant in the EU every year, and a majority takes at least one medication during pregnancy. But only as few as 5 per cent of available medications have been adequately monitored, tested and labelled for use in pregnant and breastfeeding women, Professor Nordeng explains. She is one of the researchers involved in the new and massive European research project