Filling a gap: Europe will study drug safety in pregnant and breastfeeding women

We know we don’t know nearly enough about whether a given medicine is safe for pregnant and breastfeeding women to use — or even whether it will work. Only 5% of prescription drugs are understood well enough to say how they might affect these women. Now ConcePTION, a sweeping $32 million effort launched by drug makers and the executive branch of the European Union, aims to fill that knowledge gap by bringing together more than 200 researchers and 88 organizations. “We need to really do a better job using the information that is generated in practice or routine care to make information available to women that are pregnant and their health care providers. There’s just not good enough evidence,” says Dr. Miriam Sturkenboom, the scientific coordinator of ConcePTION.