Department of Pharmacology, University of Bologna (UNIBO)

Safety evaluation and regulatory aspects of drugs with QT liability: (1) critical review of the published literature to rank drugs of specific classes,(2) drug utilisation studies to indirectly quantify population exposure to drugs with QT liability,(3) signal detection of Torsades de Pointes gathered through investigation of spontaneous reporting databases (FP7 project: ARITMO). Safety issues currently under investigation by analysing international spontaneous reporting databases: drug-induced TdP,drug-induced PML and glitazones,collaborative projects with the Italian Medicines Agency (i.e.,antipsychotics,hepatotoxicity,biphosphonates). Drug utilisation: active involvement in EuroDURG and SIG-DUR-ISPE initiatives (e.g. CNC project and European ATC browser),study of patterns of drug use and appropriateness in Italy (i.e.,cardiovascular drugs,osteoporosis,antipsychotics,multiple sclerosis,NSAIDs) by using drug prescription databases,questionnaires,registries.