Center for Pharmacoepidemiology

The Center for Pharmacoepidemiology (the “Center”) is a unique partnership between the Department of Epidemiology in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, the leading public school of public health in the U.S., and notable non-academic stakeholders. As a recognized academic leader in epidemiology and pharmacoepidemiology, UNC and the Center provide a unique forum to generate innovative, evidence-based solutions to challenges related to comparative effectiveness research and evaluation of the safety of drugs and devices in real-world clinical settings.

The mission of the Center is to advance the field of PE through innovation in methods, application of those methods to critical concerns in the field, and training of future leaders. Initiated through a grant from GlaxoSmithKline in 2002, the Center has a history of fostering collaborative research between academia and industry partners who share a commitment to developing robust methodologies and generating valid evidence using observational data on real-world patients from a variety of sources.

Support from the Center helps to fund two to three pharmacoepidemiology PhD students as named fellows every year as well as a variety of educational activities within the PE program. The CPE holds annual workshops to address methodological issues in current projects with contributions from UNC and industry.

The Center is currently partnered with seven member companies and continues to expand its collaborations across the pharmaceutical industry, government, and regulatory agencies.