Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht University

The mission of our division is to improve the safe and effective use of medicines by patients and society, by: - performing multidisciplinary research inspired by societal needs and disseminating knowledge on the safety, effectiveness, access and use of existing and new medicines and associated healthcare systems; - identifying potential for improvement in collaboration with patients, health care professionals, drug developers and policy makers; - educating pharmacy and (bio)medical students, researchers, pharmacists and other professionals in the healthcare sector. Our multidisciplinary research contributes to a better understanding of the variability in medicines’ use and patient outcomes, both from a clinical, policy and methodological perspective. Despite extensive testing before marketing approval, variability in drug response (both efficacy and safety) is more the rule than the exception when medicines are used in daily clinical practice, i.e. in real life. The research program is inspired by societal needs to ensure that medicines deliver their full therapeutic potential. The program has a systems therapeutics focus, integrating various disciplines, dimensions and phases of a product life cycle in order to learn about (rather than confirm) drug effects and their determinants both before and after initial marketing approval of the product. The primary conceptual anchors in the research strategy of the program are Epidemiological Methods, Clinical Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics. Research is organized into three centers with a strong conceptual research strategy: the Centre for Pharmacoepidemiology, Centre for Clinical Therapeutics, and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation.