International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations

Abstract

Those of us who were at the Wolfsberg meeting 2 years ago will recall that, apart from a strong showing of distinguished academics in the field of epidemiology, most of the participants were from companies in the pharmaceutical industry, together with a few of us representing international associations. Most of us were there to hear for the first time what the acronym RAD-AR represented. Both the list of participants and the agenda for the meeting starting today show just how much progress has been made since 1988. Few people in the major industrialised countries of the world who are professionally concerned with the issue of drug safety are now unaware of the RAD-AR initiative. Important meetings in Stratford, Washington, Tokyo and other places have contributed to that awareness.