Congratulations to Yi-Jou Chou, who was awarded the “Most Highly Rated Abstract Submitted by a Student in the Drug Utilization Research Category” award at the 2025 International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE) annual meeting.
Chou’s abstract was titled “Utilization of Statins and other Lipid-Modifying Agents During Pregnancy in the U.S., 2005-2022.” The study reviewed the utilization trends of statins and other prescribed lipid-modifying agents among pregnant women in the U.S., and described the changes in utilization before and after the U.S. FDA removed the contraindication label for statins during pregnancy.
Due to the lack of sufficient drug safety data during pregnancy and continued consideration of statins’ teratogenicity, this utilization study is a reference that provides initial evidence of how real-world prescription practices have responded to the policy change and reveals the need for more information to help clinicians and pregnant women assess the risk-benefit balance of statins.
