Abstract
Congenital malformations or birth defects are a major public concern. However, lack of proper information may panic a pregnant woman who had taken medicines, and thus may result in an unnecessary abortion. During the development of new drugs, the evaluation of reproductive risk using experimental animals is required in preclinical trials. However, the reproductive data of medicinal products have been usually held privileged by pharmaceutical companies once the development of a product has been stopped. We have started a new research / development project in Japan to create an information-community for teratogenic agents, consisting of pregnant women, pharmacists, physicians, research scientists of new drugs and the Japan Pharmaceutical Information Center, a non-profit foundation. Our system will be useful for medical workers who perform the clinical risk-assessment of teratogenic exposures during pregnancy. Thus the pregnant woman and her family will be able to carry out family planning with their minds at ease. In addition, it will be beneficial for the scientists to develop new drugs using the quantitative structure activity relationship based on chemical information and computer science.
