What is AsPEN?
The Asian Pharmacoepidemiology Network, or AsPEN, is a multi-national research network which was formed to provide a mechanism to support the conduct of pharmaco-epidemiological research and to facilitate the prompt identification and validation of emerging safety issues among the Asian countries.
1. The History of AsPEN
was first suggested at the 3rd Asian Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology (ACPE) in Seoul, Korea in 2008. A collaborative international symposium was convened in 2009 which culminated in a multi-country meeting at the 4th ACPE in Tainan, Taiwan. At the Tainan meeting, attendees agreed to formally develop the AsPEN initiative by undertaking an initial feasibility study. Following the ACPE-Tainan meeting, a series of teleconferences were held to further develop the protocols and to decide on the study execution details including the structure of common datasets and the development of common analysis programs, personalized for each country. AsPEN symposium was held in 2010 at 5th ACPE in Tokyo, Japan, and in 2011 at 6th ACPE in Beijing, China. In the mid-year meeting of ICPE in 2012, AsPEN was recognized as formal special interest group (SIC) at ICPE. The 7th ACPE and AsPEN workshop will be held in Bengaluru, India in 2012.
2. AsPEN Collaborating Nations and the characteristic of the ASPEN database
Participating AsPEN collaborating nations included: Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Australia with their collaborating nations including Sweden, and the United States.
