PharmaSafe - Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety

Congratulations to first author Mahmoud Zidan and our other colleagues for their newly published paper in Vaccine, titled "BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in pregnancy: Emulating trial NCT04754594 using observational data from Norwegian health registries."

In this study, Mahmoud and colleagues simulated clinical trials for pregnant women using data from health registries, as traditional trials are considered unethical for this group. They compared their findings to a previous U.S. study on the effectiveness of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, revealing similar results: 39% effectiveness compared to the U.S. study’s 41%.

This groundbreaking approach not only confirms the vaccine's protective effects during pregnancy but also shows that this method could be used on future research on drug safety and efficacy for pregnant individuals.

Read the full article here:

Simulerer kliniske prøvar på gravide med data frå helseregister - Farmasøytisk institutt Å testa legemiddel på gravide er vanskeleg. Men norsk forsking har vist at simulerte data gjev omtrent same svar som vanlege prøvar.

Last week PharmaSafe members were able to attend the hashtag Conference in Oslo!

This conference, focusing on Perinatal and Paediatric Epidemiology, was a perfect setting to meet and hear from international colleagues in our field.

Read more here:

PharmaSafe attends the EPPEC conference in Oslo! - Department of Pharmacy PharmaSafe members attended the 3rd European Perinatal and Paediatric Epidemiology Conference (EPPEC) last week.

Anne Gerd Granås had the opportunity to visit Lithuania in September, where she presented at Vilnius University and the 40th Annual Congress of the Lithuanian Pharmaceutical Association. From discussing menopause to tackling medicine accessibility in Norway, she continues to make us proud with her international contributions!

Read more about her visit here:

Anne Gerd Granås Visits Vilnius University in Lithuania! - Department of Pharmacy Anne Gerd Granås recently traveled to Vilnius University, where she was welcomed to present her work and perspectives on two occasions.

We are very happy to congratulate Hedvig Nordeng on being awarded a research grant to study the effects of ADHD medication use during breastfeeding!

This grant comes from the ADHD research network at Oslo University Hospital.

Read more here:

400 000 kroner til banebrytende morsmelkstudie om ADHD-medisiner - Farmasøytisk institutt Professor Hedvig Nordeng har mottatt 400 000 kroner i forskningsstøtte fra ADHD Forskningsnettverket for å måle overgang av ADHD-medisiner i morsmelk.

On June 12th, Sanitetskvinnene hosted an incredible evening dedicated to women's health, led by TV-star Else Kåss Furuseth. Authors Vigdis Hjorth and Line Normann Hjorth also shared their heartfelt journey through breast cancer from their book "Kul i brystet, året vi ble syke". We are proud to see our colleagues Anne Gerd Granås and Hedvig Marie Nordeng attend events such as these, which promote a movement for women’s health and well-being.

Let’s keep the conversation going!

Read our website post here:

Anne Gerd Granås and Hedvig Nordeng attend Kvinnehelseaften! - Department of Pharmacy On June 12th, The Norwegian Women's Public Health Association (Sanitetskvinnene) hosted the event “Women’s health evening (Kvinnehelseaften)”, dedicated to discussions and topics on women's health.

Exciting Summer Research Contributions from PharmaSafe!

This summer, our research group has released several scientific publications we'd like to share!

Among our highlights:

🔍 Impact of Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection on COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness

🤝 Advancing Health Equity in Pharmacoepidemiology

📊 Improving Data Quality in Maternal Health Studies

So much hard work goes into these publications, so join us in celebrating our team and co-authors on these papers!

Summer Research Highlights: Recent Contributions from Our Group - Department of Pharmacy This summer, our research group has produced several notable publications that underscore the hard work and international collaboration we partake in. Here, we highlight a selection of our most significant contributions:

Exciting insights from researcher Nhung Trinh on her recent summer course at the University of Bordeaux! With the use of the R packages developed by the course leaders, the course provided hands-on experience in modeling longitudinal data.

Nhung highlighted the importance of networking and collaborative problem-solving with international peers. She plans to apply innovative methods from the course to enhance her research efficiency.

📝 Read more about her experience and takeaways in our full article!

iAPOGEE Project sends Nhung Trinh to the University of Bordeaux - Department of Pharmacy This June, researcher Nhung Trinh visited an iAPOGEE partner at the University of Bordeaux to strengthen collaboration and attend a course.

PhD Spotlight: Alexis Carson

We are proud to celebrate Alexis Carson, a dedicated PhD student in the PharmaSafe research group on publishing her first paper of her PhD! Since starting her program in Fall 2023, Alexis has been diving into research on maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy and its potential effects on child health, particularly metabolic conditions such as childhood type 1 diabetes.

Alexis recently published her first paper, “Initiating antidepressant treatment in pregnancy: Timing, intensity, and influential maternal and familial factors,” explores insights into antidepressant use during pregnancy among 1,879 women. Key findings include:

☑️ 81.6% discontinued treatment, primarily in early pregnancy.
☑️ Genetic susceptibility and pre-pregnancy psychotropic use significantly impacted treatment trajectories.

This spring, Alexis also expanded her research during a visit to Karolinska Institute in Sweden, where she integrated Swedish data into her future work on type 1 diabetes.

We look forward to seeing more of the contributions Alexis will make as she continues her academic journey!

Read the full article here:

PharmaSafe’s PhD Student Alexis Carson Published her first paper on Antidepressent use during pregnancy! - Department of Pharmacy We are proud to celebrate Alexis Carson, a dedicated PhD student in the PharmaSafe research group on publishing her first paper of her PhD. Since joining the program in Fall 2023, Alexis has been actively exploring the topic of maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy and its potential effects o...

In June, we had 19 local master students who completed their Master's in Pharmacy with our research group. Here are some highlights of the topics they explored, including:

☑️ The culture of medication use for athletes
☑️Medication use of breast milk donors at OUS
☑️Perceptions of vaccination during pregnancy
☑️Potential for inappropriate prescribing of medications for dementia patients

Additionally, we had several external master's students collaborating with us on their thesis projects, such as the natural history of difficult-to-treat depression in adolescents and the effects of antidepressant exposure on pubertal timing.

We are incredibly proud of our students and can’t wait to see their future contributions!

We invite you to read more about all their projects in our full post:

Celebrating Our Master’s Students of 2025! - Department of Pharmacy In the academic year of 2024-2025, we had 19 local master students who completed their Master's in Pharmacy with our research group. Read more about their projects and accomplishments below:

We’d like to share that one of our research group’s latest studies, co-authored by our very own Hedvig Nordeng and Marleen van Gelder, has been highlighted in an article on forskning.no!

The article discusses the publication entitled "Exposure to Systemic Antimicrobials During Pregnancy and Risk of Miscarriage: A Population-Based Registry Study" published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology. This important research investigates the relationship between commonly used antibiotics during pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage, utilizing a new algorithm to improve data accuracy and insight.

🔗 Read the full article in Norwegian here: https://www.forskning.no/abort-medisiner-partner/ny-algoritme-fjernar-tvil-om-samanhengen-mellom-legemiddel-og-spontanabortar/2519060?utm_source=newsletter

📖 For in-depth details, don’t miss the publication in BJOG: https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1471-0528.18155

Congratulations to the authors!

Ny algoritme fjernar tvil om samanhengen mellom legemiddel og spontanabortar Antibiotika er den fyrste gruppa legemiddel forskarane har undersøkt risikoen ved. Fleire skal det bli.

This summer, PharmaSafe is excited to introduce our five outstanding UiO:Life Science summer students who are joining us to contribute to various projects in pharmacoepidemiology!

Read the article below to get an introduction to them and hear about their projects.

Thank you so much to UiO:Life Science for funding these research projects and to our wonderful supervisors!

PharmaSafe Welcomes 5 Life Science Summer Interns! - Department of Pharmacy This summer, PharmaSafe is excited to introduce our five outstanding UiO:Life Science summer students who will be joining us to contribute to various projects in pharmacoepidemiology. Read below to hear about them!

PharmaSafe is kicking off 2025 with four new publications! Dive into the article below for an overview of these studies.

Shoutout to our incredible team for consistently delivering high-quality research results!

https://www.mn.uio.no/farmasi/english/research/groups/pharma-safe/news/2025/kicking-off-2025-with-new-publications!.html