New Alliance Advocates for Maternal/Foetal and Breastfeeding Health and Safety Issues, Particularly With Regards to the Safety of Medications

    TORONTO, Feb. 12 /CNW Telbec/ - A new Alliance of health professionals,
academia, patients, health care policy experts and industry individuals has
been formed to address issues related to the use of medications during
pregnancy. The Canadian Alliance for Safe and Effective Medications in
Pregnancy and Breastfeeding (CaseMed-Pregnancy) intends to advocate for
maternal/foetal and breastfeeding health and safety issues, particularly with
regards to the safety of medications.
    Founding members of CaseMed-Pregnancy are: Anne Tomalin, CanReg Inc.,
Dr. Gideon Koren, Motherisk, Dr. Donald Davis, Society of Obstetricians  and
Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC), Mercédes Benegbi, Thalidomide Victims
Association of Canada (TVAC) and Carole Boyer, Duchesnay Inc.
    "The main goal of CaseMed-Pregnancy is to have pregnant women and their
foetuses recognized as a vulnerable patient population and to ensure that
health care professionals and patients have access to current and reliable
information on the safety and efficacy of medications used during pregnancy
and breastfeeding", stated Anne Tomalin, Chair and Coordinator of the new
Alliance.
    The idea of creating this Alliance emerged following the Motherisk
Symposium Establishing a New Benchmark for Drug Evaluation during Pregnancy,
which took place during the 2006 Canadian Therapeutics Congress. The objective
of this symposium was to review and discuss scientific and regulatory issues,
challenges and solutions to ensure that pregnant women in need of drug
therapies can be safely treated. The Symposium's proceedings have just been
published in the January issue of Canadian Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
(www.cjcp.ca).
    "The articles contained in these proceedings deal with a variety of
aspects of the issues, from the clinical and toxicological to the regulatory,
from first trimester teratological effects to late pregnancy pharmacotherapy
of labour", stated Dr. Gideon Koren. "It is hoped that this will help to
empower the formation of new avenues to study drug therapies during pregnancy
and lactation as well as establish a new benchmark for drug evaluation during
pregnancy. Treating the mother while protecting the unborn should always be
our main concern," concluded Dr. Koren.

For further information: Anne Tomalin, Chair of the Alliance, (905)
689-3980, www.CaseMed-Pregnancy.org.