What is the EU-ADR Alliance?

The EU-ADR Alliance represents an unprecedented collaboration framework to run a wide variety of studies based on a multi‐database approach to answer pharmacoepidemiological and drug safety questions. At the EU-ADR Alliance, we use routinely collected data extracted from multiple European privately and publicly owned Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) databases. Our databases include about 20 million of active population, enabling us to access to broad range of data including paediatric.

Please see the EU-ADR Alliance latest publications

The EU-ADR Alliance builds on the results of the EU-ADR project “Exploring and Understanding Adverse Drug Reactions by Integrative Mining of Clinical Records and Biomedical Knowledge” (funded by the ICT Unit of the European Commission in the 7th Framework Programme (7FP), which represented  a breakthrough in the use of technology to improve pharmacovigilance in federated studies. (Please see Coloma et al; EU-ADR Consortium. Combining electronic healthcare databases in Europe to allow for large-scale drug safety monitoring: the EU-ADR Project. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2011 Jan;20(1):1-11. doi: 10.1002/pds.2053. Epub 2010 Nov 8. PMID: 21182150). 

For the latest EU-ADR Alliance publications, please click here

Principles and methodology

The EU-ADR Alliance is an open and flexible federation of organisations based on the following principles:

• Non-competitive network of federated databases professionally managed by an Honest Broker to ensure the highest standards from the study request to the study completion.
• Scientific independence and
• Study-centric approach to extend healthcare knowledge and advance innovation.
• Liaison with regulatory authorities, pharmaceutical companies, public-private partnerships .
• Longstanding collaboration track record.

Database Sources & Operations framework

The EU-DR Alliance databases include about 20 million of active population, enabling us to access primary and secondary care, including both adult and paediatric health records.

• IPCI
• AARHUS
• SIDIAP
• SIDIAP paediatrics
• HSD**
• PEDIANET
• CPRD*

* under license  / **data refers to 800 general practitioners with fulfilled quality criteria for data registration

As a federated collaborative framework for observational studies, we:

• conduct real-world evidence research based on routinely collected data from electronic health records (primary care databases, dispensing records and hospital records) and additional linked data sources,
• work in a federated manner by which data extraction is done locally, and pooling of aggregated data is done in a remote research environment,
• contribute to the development and execution of post-authorisation safety studies (PASS), post-authorisation efficacy studies, drug utilisation studies and studies to assess the effectiveness of risk minimization studiesfor medicinal products in a wide-range of therapeutic areas, either voluntary or imposed as an obligation of marketing authorisation by a competent authority;
• provide support in the design and implementation of prospective observational research;
• follow the ENCePP guide on methodological standards in pharmacoepidemiology and the ENCePP Code of Conduct.

I want to undertake a study. How do I start the process with EU-ADR Alliance?

The first step is to contact a member of the EU-ADR Alliance with a brief study concept. The first point of contact during the early planning stages is usually Teamit Research, as this partner holds the role of “honest broker”. Please write to us. However, if you already know, or have worked with other partners in the Alliance, do not hesitate to make the first contact through that organization.

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What is the EU-ADR Alliance procedure for choosing studies?

The Alliance partner that you first approached with the study concept will then share the information with the whole EU-ADR Alliance network. Any database may choose to participate or not in any study.

Once the partners confirm their interest in the study area, the most suitable Scientific Coordinator is agreed by all the partners involved. This will usually be the partner with the most experience in the therapeutic area of that specific study.

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From the first contact, how soon can the EU-ADR Alliance start a new study?

This primarily depends on the study requester (sponsor). Once the EU-ADR Alliance partners decide that they are interested in undertaking a study, and the study concept is agreed upon with the sponsor, a contract can be drawn up. Once the contract is signed, the study can start.