Pharmakovigilanz- und Beratungszentrum für Embryonaltoxikologie (Embryotox), Charité-Universitätsmedizin, Berlin

The Embryotox Center of Clinical Teratology and Drug Safety in Pregnancy (Berlin) was founded 1988 and provides information on drug risks to health care providers and pregnant women, primarily in Germany. Through the consultation process, mainly via phone, all relevant data of the patient are collected by application of a structered questionnaire. Follow-up on pregnancy outcome until the infant's age of at least 6 weeks is recorded after birth. There are about 12,000 information requests per year, approximately 4,000 were followed-up. Patient data are stored in a special pharmacovigilance database adapted to the needs of pregnancy/newborn data. Pregnancy outcome data are evaluated in observational cohort studies using women without suspect drug exposure as controls. Several of these studies were published in peer reviewed journals. Our center is independent from industry and financed by the city government, the BfArM and the federal health ministry. It has been part of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) since January 1, 2012, and is affiliated with the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology.