Improving Knowledge on Safety is Key to Enabling Drug Access for Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women

If pregnant women were an ethnic minority group, or perhaps elderly citizens, imagine the indignation if they were systematically excluded from clinical trials, research, and new treatments. The well-rehearsed argument that deliberately excluding pregnant women from trials is in their best interests (typically because of concerns over reproductive toxicity for the fetus) has hindered evaluation of new treatments for pregnancy-specific conditions (such as pre-eclampsia or fetal growth restriction), and assessment of medicines routinely used for co-existing medical conditions.

Automated summary

Pregnant women are often excluded from clinical trials, hindering the evaluation of new treatments for pregnancy-specific conditions and medications for co-existing medical conditions.